Fire Dragons Don't Breathe Ice
by DarkraixCresselia
Summary: That's what every dragon of Crystal's clan believed until she was born. And for that reason, she was deemed an outcast. Upon reaching adulthood, she leaves her entire home, and meets up with an interesting duo of a raccoon and tree, and soon has the adventure of a lifetime.
1. Prologue

**A/N I only own Crystal, the species of dragons, and the planet of dragons. Everything else is owned by Disney and Marvel.**

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><p><em>Everyone has a backstory.<em>

_Everyone from simple folk, to the greatest king of a nation, or even planet._

_Everyone has a story of how they came to be, whether it's a simple life story, or an epic tale of adventure. But sometimes it starts out simple, and ends up being one of the greatest adventures anyone, man, beast, or alien, has ever witnessed or heard._

_But no matter if it's simple or epic, everyone has a backstory._

_This is mine._

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><p>One would think that fire-breathing dragons, with bellies full of fire, would have no difficulties during the winter. But they live by hot volcanoes for most of the year, and thus are used to the heat. The cold, to them, is like someone jumping into icy-cold water during the summer; a big shock due to the temperature change.<p>

And so the cold can be a killer for Ignis egg clutches. Some Ignis mates exchanged bittersweet tails of eggs lost to the icy winds and cold snow of winter. Thus, eggs are rarely laid near winter months if it could be helped.

Two Ignis dragons had a clutch of eggs during the winter, a time of grief and difficulty for Ignis. When the time came for their eggs to hatch, nothing stirred. Despite the parents keeping them warm by sitting on them and breathing fire on the stone nest, all of the eggs died.

Or so they thought.

One egg shook. At first, they thought it was a trick of the eye. But as they stared at it, the egg shook again. Harder this time. Finally, there was a crack in the marbled orange and red shell—which strangely had blue flecks, though everyone decided it was from them being laid in the winter.

"Oh, one of our draclings survived!" The mother, Indira, had cried out, nuzzling her mate, Sarosh. He nuzzled her back, smiling proudly at his strong little dracling.

"Come, now, little one. Your mother and I are waiting."

The egg continued to shake and crack, and eventually small pieces fell away. After what felt to the two adults like hours, a small dracling wriggled out of the egg pieces, wet and shaking. But she wasn't shaking from cold, but rather from getting the egg fluids off.

Like all Ignis draclings, she was orange with fingerless-wings. But some Ignis details were missing: her normally-red stripes and eyes were icy-blue, her chest and belly were furry instead of plated, and her tail had a light-blue spear instead of a red flame-shaped spade.

Indira and Sarosh stared down at their child in surprise. She looked up at them with equal confusion, and then cooed happily, recognizing them as her parents.

"…Indira? Why does she have…blue?"

"I don't know, Sarosh." She shook her head. "Perhaps it's like the rest of our eggs? Because they were laid in winter, and she hatched in winter?"

"…Perhaps." He nodded. "At any rate, what shall we call her?"

Indira lay down in the nest, paying no attention to the other eggs—they hadn't budged like their sister, and so were considered dead—and nudged her dracling close to her body to warm her up. "…Crystal. She shall be named Crystal."

"Crystal…born during the times of crystal-like ice. It fits her perfectly." Sarosh nodded, laying down and placing his head next to his newly-christened daughter. She was only the size of his snout, yet despite this, and being born in the most-hated and feared season for ignis dragons, she seemed strong. Instead of huddling close to her mother, she climbed onto her father's snout, cooing happily.

Despite the strange color on his daughter's body, and the chance she wouldn't survive the harsh winter of Drakonehm, Sarosh couldn't help but smile proudly.

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><p><strong>AN So I've taken a month-long break from writing, but I have a few ideas for fanfics; a sequel to my Felidae fanfic (a Felidae/Warriors crossover) a story for the live-action Grinch movie, one for the Black Cauldron movie, and one for Guardians of the Galaxy: this fanfic. But it might be a bit slow with writing this, as well as the Grinch fanfic, which I started recently as well.**

**I already made one GotG fanfic, though it was simply a oneshot, introducing Crystal after the events of the movie. In this, it'll show her past, how she met Rocket and Groot, and her involvement in the movie. One that ends, the oneshot can be considered the sequel, even though it was posted first. It's kind of like the Star War movies, I suppose.**

**I decided to make three species of dragons instead of having all of them breathe fire because A) that's kind of boring, and B) I have a book called "Dragonology: The Complete Book of Dragons" that implies other dragons breathe ice. And in How to Train Your Dragon (haven't seen the sequel yet, so don't spoil it please) at least one dragon (or half of one) breathed gas. So, I had the three dragon species in this breathe fire, ice, and poisonous gas to make it interesting.**

**The word "Ignis" is Latin for "fire." The other two dragon species will have their own Latin-based names as well. Crystal's parents were chosen on a random name generator (I can't remember their name language[s]) Crystal was just chosen randomly a long time ago.**

**Even though this seems to have nothing to do with Guardians of the Galaxy, rest assured, it's in the movie's universe. I'll try not to dawdle too much with the backstory for Crystal, and actually try to get her into territory that would seem like it fits in with the movie, it that makes sense.**


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N I only own Crystal, the species of dragons, and the planet of dragons. Everything else is owned by Disney and Marvel.**

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><p>At the beginning, Indira and Sarosh never suspected anything else about Crystal was different aside from having blue stripes and eyes. At the time of her birth, it was a simple defect in color, similar to an Ignis having a lighter or darker shade of orange or red. But it soon became apparent that her blue color wasn't the only thing different about her.<p>

What separated each species of dragon on Drakonehm—Ignis, the fire dragons, Glaciem, the ice dragons, and Venenum, the poison gas dragons—was not just their different color schemes; it was their element breath. Ignises breathed fire, Glaciems breathed ice, and Venenums breathed poisonous gas.

But Crystal, though she was an Ignis, didn't follow her species' biology. One day, just after she met the rest of her clan, and when she was alone with her parents, she sneezed. This may seem unimportant to both man and beast. Especially when it's normal for Ignis to have tiny flames fly from their noses when they sneezed.

But Crystal sneezed snowflakes.

The first time this happened, Indira and Sarosh stared in astonishment and horror. Crystal simply shook her head and giggled.

"…Indira?"

"I don't know." She shook her head. "P-Perhaps it also came from being born during winter?"

"What will the rest of the clan think…no." Sarosh snorted. "They won't know. She'll have to learn to keep her…_ice_ breath a secret."

"It can't be kept secret forever." Indira sighed. "You know that, Sarosh."

"Perhaps it can. I'll have no one know that my daughter breathes the same breath as our enemies."

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><p>For several months, somehow, no one was none the wiser about a young dracling breathing ice instead of fire. Not even her new friends knew. And when they all began dragon school, learning how to survive on their own if they wished to live as rogues andor start their own clans, and how to hunt, they never needed to show their fire breath. Everyone assumed each and every Ignis dracling breathed fire, and knew how to do so. So Crystal's secret was kept just that: secret.

As her father wanted, she learned to keep her ice breath a secret. Especially when she revealed that the snowflakes that flew from her nose wasn't a fluke. She had frozen a puddle just outside their cave in front of her mother. Indira had panicked, pulling her daughter under herself and thawing out the puddle with her own fire breath.

Crystal had been taught that though her ice breath wasn't her fault, no one else would like it—which was the worst thing in the world for a child of any alien species in the universe—and to keep it secret. That meant she couldn't freeze anything or anyone, and had to try and not sneeze.

For the most part, she understood, though she only understood that she needed to keep her ice breath a secret. She didn't quite understand why it was bad that she had icy breath instead of fiery. All she knew was that she was different, and in her parents' eyes, that was bad.

But one day, over a year after she was born—draclings were considered young children at this time—her class was required to test their fire breaths. This startled Crystal, and she tried to think up an excuse to not do the exercises; she had a cold, a sore throat, or her fire breath was weak. Unfortunately, this didn't fly, and she was instead chosen to go last.

Her friends didn't know that she didn't want to use her "fire" breath. They didn't know her icy secret. They just knew she was different, having blue stripes and eyes. They weren't wary of this though, and easily made friends with her. But they did hear their parents and family gossiping about the little dracling. They already thought she was a stroke of bad luck, having been born during the winter. "All we need is that dracling having ice breath."

On the day dragon school needed to test their fire breath, Crystal was a few draclings away from being called. It was during the summertime, the time for Ignises. They loved the summertime, while winter was the season for Glaciems. Crystal enjoyed both seasons, playing in the snow happily.

While she was waiting to be called, Crystal became aware of her nose starting to itch. She wrinkled it a few times, trying to get rid of the feeling. But it only grew. And just before she was called, she began inhaling deeply to sneeze. "Ahh-ahh-ahhhh…_Atchoo_!" She sneezed loudly, startling everyone. Snowflakes flew out of her nose and melted in the warm air instantly.

But not before everyone saw that she didn't breathe fire.

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><p>Crystal sat between her parents, head hung in shame. The dragon who taught the draclings was talking with her parents about what happened. "She was born during the cold months, so we figured that was why she has blue stripes and eyes, and breathed ice." Sarosh explained. "I'm sorry for any inconvenience she caused."<p>

"She didn't hurt anyone," The teacher shook her head. "But she did surprise the other draclings, including me. I'm sorry, but I'll have to tell the elders about this."

"We tried to teach her to keep her ice breath a secret," Indira said. "But I suppose sneezing was unavoidable."

"I understand, but the elders will know eventually, whether by me telling them or not."

"I'm sorry." Crystal spoke up. "I didn't mean to sneeze."

"Hush." Sarosh said sternly.

Crystal laid down, blocking out the rest of the grown up talk.

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><p>The elders, which were a small group of older dragons who led the clan, were alerted that one particular dracling breathed not fire, but ice. They asked to see this particular dracling, and so Sarosh and Indira brought Crystal to them.<p>

Under encouragement from her mother, and a harsh nudge from her father, she froze a small plant with her icy breath. "How did this happen?" The oldest Ignis asked.

"She was the only of our clutch to survive, which had been laid during the cold months." Sarosh said. "At the time, we only realized she had blue stripes and eyes. But we never thought she would have ice breath."

"I see." The elder nodded. "Unfortunately, and I think the others will agree with me, that she doesn't belong—"

"She's just a child!" Indira exclaimed. "And she doesn't know fully why she's being punished for being different! It wasn't her fault that she was born this way."

"We understand," The oldest elder's mate nodded. "But everyone else may not. Gossip had been already spreading about simply her eyes and stripes. And even though the whole clan didn't see her sneeze snowflakes, the draclings did, and they'll surely tell their parents. Word spreads quickly. And everyone won't be so sympathetic towards young Crystal."

"We understand." Sarosh nodded. "Unfortunately, as she proved today, we can't keep her ice breath a secret."

"So, what do you expect we do?" Indira asked harshly.

"…Perhaps we should pay our enemies a visit." The oldest elder said.

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><p><strong>AN As I said before, Ignis is Latin for "Fire." The ice dragons are called Glaciem, Latin for "Ice," and the poisonous gas dragons are called Venenum, Latin for "Poison." I thought it would be more interesting to give them species names.**

**When I was creating Crystal, I thought it would be cute that when she sneezed, snowflakes flew out of her nose. This also works in revealing her ice breath, since Ignis draclings would sneeze out tiny flames.**

**Yep, I'm going this route: the protagonist is different, and that's deemed bad. The old Rudolph-the-Red-Nosed-Reindeer storyline. But I don't care. All five of the members of the Guardians of the Galaxy have a sort of dramatic backstory (except for Groot...what's his story in the comics?) and as far as I know, none of them have ones that Crys has in that they're different from their family.**

**BTW, I don't think I ever said it, but Crystal's clan isn't all of the Ignises on Drakonehm; it's just a group of them. Sort of like in Lion King, where the Pridelands pride is a lot of lions, but not the entire population of the species, if that makes any sense.**


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N I only own Crystal, the species of dragons, and the planet of dragons. Everything else is owned by Disney and Marvel.**

**random gal: I hope I do it well enough in that it's interesting, if that makes sense, then. I try and do that: write what I want, and not care if anyone else dislikes it (though if someone points out a thing they don't like, I DO think if I should change or not, especially if it'll make the story better or worse)**

**Thanks :)**

**I know. I actually wrote several chapters in advance (I'm working on chapter 5 at the moment) but I'm posting the next tomorrow, and then the next one on Friday, and so forth because I don't want to rush too fast, and put all of the chapters in place in one sitting, but at the same time, I want to get into setting and characters that look like they'd be in the movie, which might be a bit of a challenge, because while I've seen the movie, and have the DVD, I've never read the comics they were based on, or watched any cartoons they were in. So, I just might make up some aliens, or base some off of the movie. And once I get Rocket and Groot into the picture, THEN we'll be in GotG territory.**

**All in all, I know it doesn't seem like this is in GotG (that's also why I took so long to post this, as I was worried people wouldn't think this is a GotG fanfic, regardless of the category it's in) but I'll try not to dawdle in Crystal's backstory. I think I just might introduce our favorite raccoon/tree duo in chapter 6 or 7, depending on how much content I put in a chapter.**

**xXTigress1776Xx: Thanks :)**

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><p>Several days later, it was decided that the oldest elder, Adalwolf, Sarosh, Indira, and Crystal would travel to the snowy mountains, the home of the Glaciems, to see if they would take Crystal in, since she had the same ice breath as them. Indira had protested, saying she was her daughter, and that she must stay with her. "I'll stay with her with the Glaciems."<p>

"You can't." Adalwolf shook his head. "Your place is with the Ignises. Besides, the Glaciems won't accept you."

"But they'll accept Crystal?"

"They might."

During the several days' time that the trip was planned, Crystal had lost her friends. When they told their parents that she sneezed snowflakes, and said parents were told by the elders that Crystal breathed ice, the draclings were told that ice-breathing dragons weren't to be trusted; especially ones that were supposed to breathe fire. So they were told that Crystal was different, and that it was bad.

They ignored her, and some even began picking on her, calling her names.

Crystal couldn't understand it. She didn't know why it was so bad that she was different. She didn't choose to have ice breath. But no one seemed to understand that.

Her mother seemed to be the only one who didn't turn their back on her. Even her father was disappointed in her after accidentally revealing her secret. "I didn't mean to sneeze." Crystal said.

Early one morning, Crystal stepped out of the cave she and her parents slept in, and sat down, staring at the rising sun. She was over a year old, and had doubled in size, growing to the size of her father's head. And, in Terran terms, that was the size of a medium-sized dog.

She had begun learning to fly, and could just barely reach the height of the cave entrance. This made her a fast learner at flying, which was something she could at least be proud of. She also knew how to use her ice breath, but since everyone seemed to hate this, she rarely used it except in private.

She sighed heavily, feeling like the loneliest being in the galaxy. She licked a healing wound on her left side under her wing. She had sometimes gotten injured when the other draclings picked on her. She didn't fight back, but instead tried to escape and hide. While Indira was angry at the other draclings for hurting her daughter, Sarosh tried not to notice.

"Crystal?"

She looked back to see her mother. "…Morning." She nodded.

"Are you all right?"

"I guess." Crystal shrugged. "Mother? Why am I so different?"

Indira glanced down, almost looking ashamed. "I don't know, dear."

"Why do I breathe ice? Why can't I breathe fire like everyone else?"

"I honestly don't know. It might be because you were born during the cold months."

"I wish I was born during the warm months. I wish I wasn't born at all." She said bitterly.

"Don't say that! You shouldn't ever wish that." Indira nuzzled her young daughter. "Everyone's born for a reason, even if not in desirable times. You shouldn't wish you didn't have the greatest gift of all: life."

"If everyone's born for a reason, why was I?"

Before she could answer, Sarosh stepped out. "We should probably alert Adalwolf that we're ready to go. It's a few days long of a journey."

Nodding, Indira stood up, nudged Crystal to her feet, and followed him to where the elder Ignis lived. Along the way, other fire dragons glared or turned their noses up at Crystal. She had become known as quite the outcast of the clan. For as long as anyone could remember, Ignises and Glaciems hated each other, wanting nothing to do with each other ever. Even Adalwolf said this trip to see them would be dangerous.

And now, since one of their own had the icy breath of their enemies, she was considered an outcast, a misfit, bad luck, a bad omen; anything bad they could think of.

Crystal tried to ignore the glares the adults were sending her. She simply stared forward, following her parents.

Soon, they reached Adalwolf's home. He was sitting outside of his cave with his mate, Quirina, talking about the trip. "Are we ready?" He asked upon seeing Sarosh and Indira.

"We are." He nodded.

"Are we flying?" Crystal asked. "'Cause I can't fly for long."

"We're flying." Adalwolf said to Sarosh, as if ignoring Crystal's question. "It takes a few days to get to where the Glaciems live, but if we fly, we may be able to cut the trip's length in half."

"How'm I gonna keep up?" Crystal asked. "I can't fly very good."

"'Very well.'" Indira corrected. "And I'll carry you." She laid her neck on the ground and nudged her daughter onto her back.

"Let's go." Adalwolf took off into the sky, followed by Sarosh.

Indira crouched down, and leapt into the air, pumping her large leathery wings. Crystal gripped one of her red back spikes, looking down in awe. _Will I be able to fly like this someday? I can't wait!_

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><p>As Adalwolf said, the trip took only three days, plus one of walking when the dragons' wings got tired. But they landed on the ground on the fourth day. "Dragons never fly into other dragons' territory. That's considered disrespectful." Indira explained to Crystal. "Even between Ignises and Glaciems."<p>

"Why do we hate Glaciems so much?" Crystal asked innocently. "And why do they hate us?"

"It's been like that for so long, no one knows why. But everyone has their theories. Most dragons think that it's because ice and fire are such vastly different elements that while balancing each other, they also fight against each other."

When they were walking, there was grass, and the weather was neither hot nor cold; somewhere in between. But in time, the weather became colder, and the four dragons soon found snow. Crystal hadn't had enough time to experience snow after she was born, but now she was experiencing it fully. And if she was totally honest, she loved it. She leapt into the snow, kicking it up and rolling in it, laughing all the way.

"Crystal, enough." Sarosh said sternly. "We're here on important business, perhaps dangerous. Not here to play in this disgusting cold."

"Let her play." Indira frowned. "She isn't doing anything wrong. She isn't hurting anyone."

Crystal heard her father tell her to stop, but she also heard her mother defend her. So, she kept playing. But when Adalwolf said they were approaching Glaciem territory, even Indira told Crystal to stop.

The Glaciem's territory was in snowy mountains. Even through the falling snow, Crystal could see cave entrances in the mountains, and blue and gray dragons walking around.

One patrolling Glaciem briefly spoke with Adalwolf, and left to fetch their elder. The three Ignises sat in the snow, shivering slightly. Crystal sat down as well, though she was fidgeting merely from impatience.

After a long while, three Glaciems stepped up through the falling snow. They were light-blue and gray with fingered wings, icy-blue stripes, eyes, and icicle-like back spines.

"I am Euthymios," The eldest male said. "This is my mate, Metrodora, and my son, Gaspar. State your business, Ignis."

"I am Adalwolf. This is Sarosh, Indira, and their daughter, Crystal. This dracling," He picked her up by the tail and tossed her into the snow in front of Euthymios. "Was born an Ignis, but has a different breath. Show them."

Gulping nervously, Crystal blew, creating a small, long, sharp piece of ice out of midair. The three Glaciems blinked in surprise, jaws dropping. "…I see." Euthymios suddenly glared at Adalwolf. "Are you implying that she is part Glaciem?"

"Certainly not!" The Ignis elder growled. "She only has this cursed ice breath because she hatched during the cold months."

"So, what are we supposed to do about this?" Metrodora asked. "You obviously came here for a reason regarding this dracling."

"We brought her here to give her to you." Adalwolf said. "She obviously belongs here, having ice breath. And she enjoys the cold. She was playing in the snow along the way here."

"You think just because she breathes ice she belongs with Glaciems?!" Euthymios snapped. "She is still an Ignis at birth. She's not even an adolescent yet. She looks like a yearling, yes? So she still needs to be with her mother. Besides, I assume she isn't getting along with the other draclings back at home?"

"They're picking on me." Crystal said, attracting the Glaceims' attention. "My friends don't like me. And I think Father's disappointed in me."

"You see? She doesn't fit in at home." The elder Glaciem nodded. "What makes you think it will be any different with us?"

"You're just dropping her on us to get her out of your scales." Metrodora scowled like a mother scolding her dracling. "Before she is even old enough to leave her mother. Shame on you."

"At any rate, you've wasted a journey here, and our time." Euthymios turned away and walked back into the falling snow, followed by Metrodora, who gave the Ignises one last glare.

"Well, that was a lot of time wasted." Sarosh growled, storming away, churning up the snow.

Rolling his eyes, Adalwolf followed him, saying, "Come along, Indira and Crystal. We're going back home."

Indira began following him, looking relieved. Crystal made to go after her mother, but paused when the remaining Glaciem called her back. She looked over her shoulder. "You're…um, you're Gaspar, right?"

"Indeed." He nodded. "You said the other draclings are picking on you? Is that how you got those injuries?"

"Mm-hmm." She nodded.

"Here's a bit of advice: fight back. Fight back tooth and nail. Scar _them_ if needed. Let them know how it feels to be hurt. And when you're an adult, if they're still hard on you, just leave. Find your own purpose on Drakonehm; maybe the whole galaxy, even."

She nodded, feeling a little uncomfortable. She turned and ran up to her mother, who had paused, watching her and Gaspar talk.

All the way home. Crystal thought back to what Gaspar said. _Fight back…he's right. Why shouldn't I be able to fight back?_

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><p><strong>AN As I said earlier, I actually have several chapters written in advance. I'm only uploading one everyday simply because I don't want to upload all of the written-in-advance ones in one chunk. And I wrote the ones in advance because since this fanfic started out not in the GotG universe, I want to get to "familiar territory" as quickly as possible, and I don't want several days of wait between chapters. Once the setting starts to look more like GotG (maybe when Rocket and Groot come into the picture) I won't upload this as frequently.**

**If you guys are curious to know what the different dragon species, as well as adult Crystal, look like, just go to my DeviantART accoutn (link is in my profile on here) go to my gallery, and click the "Guardians of the Galaxy" folder. They're merely made on a flash "create-a-dragon" game, but it DOES show what they look like. It also has a pic of Crystal in her different form (not so much of a spoiler, since that pic's been on DA for months) but that needs to be updated sometime...**

**Like before, the names of the Ignis and Glaciem dragons named here were randomly chosen on Behind the Name. I'm sometimes not good at naming characters, especially minor/very minor ones, so I tend to use name randomizers to do the work. Lazy, I know, but if a character's only gonna be in the story for one or two chapters, it doesn't bother me.**


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N I only own Crystal, the species of dragons, and the planet of dragons. Everything else is owned by Disney and Marvel.**

**The Rainbow Devowerer: Thanks :D**

**Guest: Thanks :) I can't wait either.**

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><p>Life continued to be hard for Crystal. As she grew up, she continued to be bullied by her peers. But something changed: she fought back. The first time a dracling picked on her, and attacked, she scratched and bit back, even using her ice breath. But she was punished for it. "He started it!" She protested. "Was I supposed to let him beat me up?"<p>

"You didn't need to draw blood." Sarosh said.

"But they did for me!"

"Next time, just ignore it."

But there were times when ignoring the bullies wasn't enough. Whenever they saw Crystal wasn't affected, they would push her around and began to get physical. At that point, she needed to fight back. She began ignoring it when her father or other Ignises scolded her for it.

She had also begun teaching herself to use her tail—which was unusually long—to secretly trip the dragons that were picking on her. They never realized it was her, and she always laughed about it.

When she was a few years old, the Ignis who had bullied her, only for Crystal to fight back for the first time, told his uncle that he never hurt Crystal and that she was the one who hurt him for no reason. His uncle was a huge, muscular dragon, who held his nephew on a high pedestal, and so was very angry that not only another dragon hurt him, but it was the very dragon that was born an Ignis, but breathed ice. When he saw her outside, he attacked.

It was one thing to be attacked by another dragon her own age and size. But it was another for an adult to do so. Especially one that was much bigger than adults themselves. So she did the first thing that came to mind: run.

The big dragon actually chased her around the entire volcano the clan lived nearby. There were times when Crystal felt his hot breath on her heels, and felt his teeth when he tried to grab her tail in his mouth. Even when she took off into the skies he followed her. She was finally able to escape by hiding in a small cave that even she was barely able to squeeze into. But she was able to squirm backwards far enough so he couldn't reach her.

After about an hour of trying to grab her, he left with a growl. It was another hour before Indira found her daughter still shaking in the cave. After hearing her story, the older Ignis gave the uncle dragon, who was almost twice her size, a yelling that made even him flinch. Even though he knew his nephew lied about her hurting him first, he didn't apologize.

Crystal didn't care. She didn't want to see him again, he scared her so much. She made an effort to avoid him whenever she was outside and saw him.

But something happened that diverted Crystal's attention: she became a big sister.

Sarosh and Indira were careful to have their clutch be laid during the summertime. As a result, their single egg hatched into a healthy Ignis named Topaz.

Sarosh originally didn't want Crystal to see her new sister. But Indira growled him into submission. "She is her sister. She has a right to meet her. She won't hurt her, you stubborn dragon. What's happened to you?"

Sarosh didn't tell her why he was so antagonistic against his own elder daughter. But he did let her meet Topaz.

Crystal was eager that she had a sister who could potentially become her only friend. "I won't let anyone bully you, Topaz." She promised as she laid down, her arms curled up in a sort of nest that her baby sister laid in.

But life wasn't quite that way afterwards. In fact, for Crystal, a fire dragon that indeed breathed ice, it worsened.

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><p>Soon, Crystal was a fully-fledged adult. She had a few scars that consisted of three claw-marks; one on her left side under her wing, one on her right thigh, and one on one side of her long tail. She was quite lovely, though the male Ignises her age never admitted it. They didn't want to acknowledge her as an Ignis even.<p>

Crystal was still hurt by the prejudice—not to mention she was still mentally scarred by the bigger dragon chasing her—but she tried to ignore it. She also remembered what Gaspar, the Glaciem, had told her: if life was still hard on her in her clan as an adult, she could just leave.

Her sister, Topaz, was as lovely an Ignis as she was, though was a few years younger. And all of the males acknowledged that. She loved her older sister, but was embarrassed to be seen with her in public. One day, she actually told her that she didn't want to be seen next to her. "If we're walking outside the caves, could you at least keep a dragon's distance away from me?"

"Why?" Crystal asked in shock. "Are you ashamed of me?"

"I just…I like some of the males, but they won't go near me if you're with me."

"Oh, I see how it is." Crystal said bitterly. "You're only concerned with your own selfish needs. And I'm in the way. Well, I apologize for being who I am, even though I had no choice in the matter." She left her sister with an angry growl, ignoring Topaz's protests.

Later that evening, as Crystal sat outside the caves deep in thought, Sarosh approached her with a frown. "Crystal? I want to talk to you in private."

"Why not here? I'm sure what you have to say to me doesn't need to be kept in private." She said, not looking at him.

"…Fine. Your sister asked you to leave her alone—"

"No she didn't. She just didn't want to be seen close to me by the males."

"I think you should do one better and leave her alone."

"Why do you hate me so much?!" Crystal suddenly snapped, spinning around to face her father. "What did I do wrong?!"

"Wrong?! What did you do wrong?! You were born with ice breath—"

"It wasn't my fault! I didn't choose this! If I had a choice in what breath I had, I would have chosen fire—"

"But you didn't. As far as I'm concerned, you can leave this clan if you want, and never return. As far as I'm concerned…you're no daughter of mine."

Crystal gasped in shock, feeling tears begin to sting her eyes. She looked around; realizing all of the shouting had attracted a crowd. And now, all of the Ignises, save for Indira and Topaz, were chanting and agreeing with Sarosh that Crystal should leave and never return.

She looked at her family, silently begging for help. Sarosh looked down his nose at her with disdain. Topaz held her head down, looking ashamed and embarrassed. Indira looked at her older daughter in sorrow, but didn't make a move to help her.

All of the bullying, hurt, ignorance, and antagonistic feelings from her own father had bottled up over the years of Crystal's life. And now, on this evening, it exploded.

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><p><strong>AN Nothing much about this chapter. Mostly filler, with little events relating to Crystal's personality development.**

**While Sarosh was right in that Crystal didn't need to make the other draclings bleed, she still needed to defend herself, in my opinion.**

**Her using her tail to trip people without them knowing was half of a trait added late. Since she's gonna be a thief when she meets Rocket and Groot, it'd be cool if she could use her tail to sneak things away from people. She'll also be able to use her hands, but her tail tends to work better, in my opinion, because her tail would be more secretive than her hands.**

**When I was creating Crystal, I thought it'd be interesting for her to be afraid of one of the Galaxy Guardians (a shorter name for the Guardians of the Galaxy) I chose Drax because he can be a bit scary-looking, and there's also the part of his story where he goes on a rampage after his family was killed. So, in order to justify Crys being afraid of Drax, I figured she wouldn't so much be afraid of HIM, but of large muscular men. Sounds a bit weird, I know XD But I think it could happen.**

**Crystal having a sister was also kind of a late addition to her character. Since she has the name of a gem-like object (fun fact: I looked up "Crystal" on Behind the Name, and it's derived from the Greek word for "Ice." I swear, I didn't know this before naming her XD) I picked Topaz for her sister, which was in the "fire/hot names" on 20000 Names from Around the World.**

**What do you think it means when it says that the bad feelings bottled up inside Crystal exploded?**


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N I only own Crystal, the species of dragons, and the planet of dragons. Everything else is owned by Disney and Marvel.**

**random gal: Yeah, I guess so.**

**No, he probably wouldn't XD Thing is, in her true form (when she looks like a regular dragon) she's huge; in her anthro form (you'll see soon) she's a tad over six feet tall, and apparently, the guy who played Drax is six foot six. So, she's just a bit shorter than him. That's why, to an outsider who doesn't know Crys, they'd think it odd that she'd be scared of him at first.**

**I just laughed at your first guess XD That IS a very literal guess XD But the second one is much closer.**

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><p>Furrowing her eyebrows deeply, and baring her teeth, Crystal stretched her neck up high, threw her head back, and let out a loud, angry roar. Everyone jumped in surprise. Crystal had never been this angry in all of the time everyone knew her.<p>

"Why must I be thought of as a monster?!" She growled deeply in her throat, sounding like a different dragon. "Only because I breathe ice instead of fire?! You _all_ are the monsters! Not me!" She took a deep breath and let loose a large ice beam, freezing one of the caves and dragons.

Chaos broke loose. Ignises ran from the mad dragon, screaming in fright. A few dragons took off to the skies. Some young males escorted Topaz away as she looked back in terror at the horror her sister was causing.

Crystal stormed around the territory, freezing everything that moved and didn't move in her rage. Her pupils had shrunken, creating the illusion that her eyes were completely icy-blue. There was nothing stopping her unleashed anger.

Dragons were frozen where they stood, and the rock caves were covered in ice. Even though they lived near a volcano, the ice stayed frozen. And she continued to roar as she froze her enemies.

Soon, only Sarosh and Indira were left. Everyone else had either fled or was frozen where they stood.

"Crystal, enough of this!" Sarosh snapped, standing in front of Indira. "I demand you stop, young lady!"

Crystal slowly approached them, growling deep in her throat. "Crystal! Listen to your fath—"

She suddenly grabbed his throat in her claws. "You. Aren't. My father. You said so yourself. I'm no daughter of yours."

He attacked her, roaring. Indira gasped as she saw her mate and daughter fight, drawing blood.

Crystal was kicked to the ground with a thump. She had several injuries, though the worse of them were three slashes across her left eye.

Growling, Crystal let loose another large beam of ice, directed at her father, freezing him instantly. She also caught the lower half of Indira's body. She screamed in pain, startling Crystal out of her rage, and fell unconscious.

She blinked, panting as if she had ran halfway around the world and back. She looked around, eyes widening in horror at what happened. She hadn't realized what her unleashed anger and rage had caused until too late.

"No…what have…what have I done?!" She exclaimed as tears began to run down her eyes. "M-M-Mama! P-Papa! What have I done?!" She turned and took off to the sky, sobbing heavily in guilt and sadness.

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><p>She had finally landed on a faraway mountain about half an hour later. She laid among the rocks, with her face buried in her arms, sobbing in regret, guilt, and sadness. She hadn't meant to attack so viciously. Something feral had snapped deep inside of her, broken by all of the hatred directed towards her. Her mother hadn't even helped her. She just sat there. Even her sister had turned against her.<p>

Crystal felt like nothing in her life had gone right. Gaspar was right about one thing at least: she should have left while she could. If she had, especially before her father said those hurtful things, everything that had happened that evening wouldn't have happened.

"What should I do?" She sniffed. "I killed almost my whole clan. If anyone survived, they'll kill me if they find me, no questions asked."

Whenever Crystal was deep in thought, whenever angry or sad, her mind would wander to happier times. One of which was when Sarosh told her about the Usekh of Humanus, an ancient artifact of Drakonehm. He told her it was something to be worn around the neck, and had large amethysts infused with magic. When any dragon wore it, the magic caused said dragon to shrink and turn into one resembling Terrans or Terran-like aliens. They stood on their hind legs, used their arms primarily, and their snouts and mouths became shorter and smaller.

But it came with a heavy price: their true forms were constrained as a result of the magic, and whenever the usekh was removed, they returned to their true forms in an untamable rage, causing them to attack anything that moved. Crystal now thought of it being similar to what had happened to her earlier that night.

"I don't want that to happen ever again." She muttered to herself, scratching the ground with the claws on one front paw. "If the Usekh of Humanus can constrain my true form, I want it. So no one could get hurt again. Once I get the usekh…I'm going to find a way to get off of this planet. If anyone survived me, they'll surely warn other dragons about me, even Glaciems and Venenums." She wasn't sure how she would get off of Drakonehm, or where she would go. _But one step at a time,_ she thought. _I have bigger things to wonder: where is the Usekh of Humanus?_

She then recalled that Sarosh told her it was in the largest mountain of Drakonehm, which was on the equator of Drakonehm: Mt. Antiqua. It was easily identified as a huge mountain that was colored red, green, and blue. It was guarded by Ignises, Glaciems, and Venenums; one of its treasures was the usekh.

"At least it'll be easily identified." She thought. "Getting in might be a challenge though." Shrugging, she stood up and took off.

Ever since she had left home, and cooled down, Crystal had never felt freer. She could do whatever she wanted, including use her ice breath. And use it she did. Even though she used it to hurt her clan, it gave her such relief to finally use it as much as she wanted. She blew ice beams into the air, and spun around in the air as the small crystals fell through the sky.

After a while of "dancing" in the sky, Crystal turned herself around to fly off and find Mt. Antiqua. All she knew was that though it was easily spotted, it was also far away from her former home.

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><p>It took a few days, but she eventually found Mt. Antiqua. It was as Sarosh told her: a huge mountain, colored with patches of red, blue, and green, the colors of the dragons of Drakonehm. Two Venenums guarded the entrance. She was sure there would be more dragons inside.<p>

Humming in thought, Crystal decided to charge right in and blast with her ice breath. But she had to remember to not kill anyone; just perhaps freeze their feet to the ground. "At least in the end, the Ignises will be able to free themselves." She mused. "Besides, I'm an Ignis that breathes ice. They'll be so surprised, I'll have a head start."

Taking a few deep breaths, she took off like a rocket.

The two Venenums blinked in surprise at the Ignis flying towards Mt. Antiqua. She landed square on her feet in front of them, glaring and growling. Then, she charged, knocking them aside. They shook their heads in surprise. No dragon had ever broken into the mountain, so this Ignis female had caught them by surprise. But they stood where they were to guard the entrance. There were other dragons inside that could easily overtake her. All they needed to do was make sure she didn't escape.

Crystal wasn't hit by other guards until she went deeper into the cave, climbing up at certain points. They stared at her in confusion. Smirking, she let loose her ice breath, freezing the Ignises and Glaciems and Venenums where they stood. At first, everyone was too shocked at the idea of an Ignis breathing ice to fight back. But once they shook themselves from their stupor, they attacked.

Crystal jumped and flew back to avoid the fire, ice, and poisonous gas, retaliating by slamming them aside with her tail and freezing them to the walls, making sure to at least not freeze their heads. She flew deeper into the mountain, landing to breathe ice on the ground, causing it to become icy like a frozen-over lake. She ran to it, and flopped onto her belly, sliding along from the momentum and knocking over startled dragons.

After what felt like several hours of searching, Crystal finally found her target. Inside the highest point of the mountain—she wondered if it was the peak—where it was quite cold, was a large flat rock, with thin ice walls manipulated to resemble a box. Inside, propped up by two tall and thin stones, was a large, wide collar-like necklace made up of several flat pieces of gold strung in a row. Five of the pieces of gold each had a large amethyst in the middle.

This was the Usekh of Humanus.

Crystal stared down at it, spying her reflection out of the corner of her eye. In all honesty, she could hardly believe she made it. It seemed like only a silly thought that she was able to achieve her goal of finding the Usekh of Humanus.

And yet, here she was, in front of one of the greatest treasures of Drakonehm.

She had a brief moment where she had a thought: was this the right thing to do? To conceal her true form, and become something she wasn't?

"No." She shook her head. "I'll still be me, just with a differently-shaped body. I'll learn to adapt. I'll never become who I was that day. I'm never going back! What's past is in the past!" She swung her tail at the ice, causing it to shatter into hundreds of pieces. She moved behind the rock, and nudged her head through the usekh. It slid down to rest on her shoulders and her chest.

* * *

><p><strong>AN Those who said Crystal would explode in the metaphorical form, you were right. She might be a sweet, misfit girl most of the time, but when she gets angry, she gets scary (kinda rhymes XD) I kinda imagine her roar to be a mix of Godzilla's and the Jurassic Park T-Rex.**

**An usekh is a wide necklace, like the kind Egyptian busts wear; humanus is Latin for "human." It was kinda hard describing what Crystal would resemble when wearing it without saying "human," since humans are called Terrans, and there are aliens that resemble Terrans. Also, I swear I wasn't thinking of the Hulk when I decided when the usekh was removed, Crys would turn into her true form in berserk mode.**

**Antiqua is just Latin for "ancient," making the mountain called Mt. Ancient. There are other treasures than just the Usekh of Humanus, they're just not important to the story (plus, I don't know what other kinds of treasure there would be, aside from piles of gold and jewels) Speaking of the usekh, the pic showing Crys in her anthro form on my DA account also has her wearing the usekh, if anyone's curious about what it looks like.**

**I'm on a roll with the cliffhangers aren't I?**


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N I only own Crystal, the species of dragons, and the planet of dragons. Everything else is owned by Disney and Marvel.**

**random gal: Thanks :D**

**You're right in that I need practice with action-y scenes. Battle/war scenes ARE ones that I seem to have trouble with writing, I'll admit. Plus, I took a month-long break, so I'm kinda rusty with writing. But for some reasons, when it comes to writing battle/war scenes, I'm just not good at it.**

**That's fine :) Everyone has their own opinion (I sometimes feel like a broken record saying that) It just might be the blue with the orange. Now that I think about it, comparing Crystal with "true" Ignises, the red DOES look better than the blue. I guess I need to learn about color coordination :3**

* * *

><p>Almost as soon as the usekh rested on her fur, Crystal felt its effect. She fell over, roaring in pain. Her bones felt like they were being broken and squeezed together, and rearranged. It was so unbearable, she was sure she was dying.<p>

What she didn't see were her whole body shrinking, and her limbs being. The usekh was shrinking as well to fit better around her smaller frame.

After what felt like hours, the pain finally faded away. Crystal uncurled herself, panting in exhaustion. "Did…did it work? I don't feel any d—!" She gasped when she saw her front paws. The fingers had rearranged themselves so she only had two fingers on the tops of each hand, and her other two fingers turned into opposable thumbs. Her arms weren't as muscular, and her shoulders had broadened and were more round.

Her feet hadn't changed, save for shrinking, though she could still stand on her toes. Her legs weren't as muscular either, though were just enough to support her body.

Crystal froze a stone wall, and looked at the ice, eyes widening further at the sight of her reflection.

She had done more than shrink. Her neck wasn't as long as it used to be, her snout had shortened, and the corners of her mouth weren't as far up her face as they were before. Her body was slightly tapered at the waist, her hips had widened, and there were two mounds of flesh on her chest each a bit bigger than her fist. Her wings were smaller, and her tail wasn't quite as long—though it was still considerably long for her new size, which was much smaller than her true form.

Some things hadn't changed though: she still had her orange and icy-blue coloring and her scars. The still-healing scratches across her eye were still there; speaking of her eyes, they were now white with icy-blue irises around her round black pupils. The usekh sat comfortably on her chest. Her chest, belly, and the underside of her tail still had thick fur.

Crystal lightly patted her face and chest, still in awe at how different she looked. She vaguely knew what she would look like before she got to the mountain, but this still came as a shock.

She clenched her fists, slowly smiling. She had achieved her goal. "I'm no longer the monster that destroyed my home and family…she's gone! That girl is gone!"

Taking a deep breath, she stood up on her hind legs. She wobbled on shaky legs, waving her arms around to keep her balance. She took a shaky step, feeling like a newborn learning to walk again. Only this time, she could only use two legs to support her whole body.

After a long time, Crystal felt she was able to walk a few feet without stumbling like a newborn dragon. She began walking back the way she came, holding her head up high. Even though she felt a bit of guilt for stealing a priceless treasure, she also felt prideful that she was able to accomplish something big.

The dragons were just able to get themselves free from the ice. The Ignises freed themselves fine, but refused to free the Glaciems. The Venenums were freed, and they helped free the Glaciems by biting and scratching at the ice. The Venenums weren't involved in the Ice vs. Fire War, as the eternal fight between the Ignises and Glaciems was called.

Everyone froze in surprise as Crystal walked in. She wasn't the rogue Ignis dragon, who breathed ice, who flew in causing such trouble and chaos. She was now in anthro-form.

She had stolen the Usekh of Humanus.

One Ignis leapt at her. She jumped up, flapping her smaller wings. They kept her in the air, though she did need to flap them harder. She dodged the dragons, though she did feel their teeth on her feet and tail, and flew out of Mt. Antiqua.

The two Venenums who were guarding the entrance were startled by the now-smaller Ignis flying towards them. They breathed green poisonous gas at her, trying to stop her from escaping.

Crystal held her breath, straightened her body out so she resembled a missile, and flapped her wings as fast as she could. She flew quickly out of the mountain, never looking back.

As soon as she felt she was far enough away, and her wings were beginning to tire, she landed, panting slightly. Her heart was still racing, and her mind kept replaying the recent events over and over.

She fingered the large, hard stones set into the golden, plated usekh around her neck. "…I still can't believe I actually did it." She whispered, sitting on her haunches. Despite having a differently-shaped body, she still had a bit of her true dragon instincts.

"…Now what am I going to do?"

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><p>It took several weeks for Crystal to fully learn to walk on her hind legs, and use her front paws as hands. She still often ran on four legs, but her new ways of walking and using her hands soon became like second instinct.<p>

Walking on her hinds legs wasn't very difficult. It was learning to use her hands, and not primarily her mouth, that was the trickiest. It took a while for her to be used to her new fingers alone. She was able to get the most practice when she ate. She still hunted like a dragon, but she taught herself to eat with her hands, holding the prey with her hands.

Crystal only knew about aliens that walked on their hind legs and used their hands as utensils because Sarosh told her about them.

"_They'll sometimes come to Drakonehm in large objects, which I believe have many names: spaceships, aircrafts or M-ships." He said. "But no matter the name, they tend to be bigger than us dragons, and different species of aliens ride in them and control them. Though there are different species, they all share common traits: front-set eyes, walking on their hind legs, using their front paws as utensils, and wearing furless-skin on themselves."_

"_Why do they come here?" Crystal had asked. "And why haven't I seen them?"_

"_They don't come very often anymore. And as to why they come here, no one knows. But they often take our prey, our plants; some even try to take us, though they very seldom succeed."_

Crystal wondered if she would ever see these two-legged aliens herself. But if she did, what would they do to her? Sarosh told her they sometimes tried to take dragons, though they almost never succeeded.

But sometimes, even very rare occurrences could indeed happen.

* * *

><p>A large aircraft landed on Drakonehm months later. Drakonehm wasn't famous merely for being inhabited mostly by dragons; they had other exotic animals, including six-legged deer and wild cattle, fish with six side fins and two tails, and large rabbits with only two hind legs. And there were plants only found on Drakonehm, which could be used as food, medicine, or drugs.<p>

But dragons were still the most famous element of the planet. Two forms of aliens came to do something with the dragons: sightseers, only wanting to watch, and perhaps study, the dragons in their natural habitat, and poachers, capturing dragons illegally whether to kill for food or material gain, or capture to own as pets or sell to zoos or circuses.

A group of poachers had landed on Drakonehm looking for dragons. They were yellow-skinned, bald, had round eyes, broad noses, wide, thin mouths, and webbed feet and hands. They wore patchy hunter clothes, gloves designed for webbed fingered-hands, and brown boots. Their weapons were guns, bows and arrows, and rope that almost nothing could rip.

These greedy aliens were called Vruttoms.

The group of ten scouted the landscape, looking around for dragons. They didn't know what kind they would come up against. But no matter what kind, they all agreed to do the same thing first: tie the mouth shut. The mouth was where the dragon's main weapon was, no matter if they breathed fire, ice, or poison gas.

After several minutes of looking, they stopped under a tree to take a break. The leader had asked his companions to keep an eye on any dragons walking by.

One had left to take a walk, but he ran back, gasping. "What?" The leader asked.

"Dragon! I saw a dragon!"

"What kind?"

"An Ignis…but it's strange-looking."

"What do you mean?" The leader stood up and grabbed his rope and gun.

"Come and see. It was hunting, and should be landing soon."

All nine of the Vruttoms followed him and hid behind several large rocks. They saw a small, humanoid-looking Ignis dragon. What was even stranger was she had icy-blue stripes and eyes, and her belly was furry instead of plated. She was also wearing a wide necklace with large amethysts. She was flying down to the ground with a large two-legged rabbit in her arms.

She sat on the ground, folding her leathery wings. Holding down the dead rabbit with one foot, she pulled it apart, held one leg in her front paws, and tore the meat from the bones hungrily.

"I've never seen a dragon that small." One Vruttom remarked.

"I thought you said it was an Ignis." The leader said to the Vruttom who told them about the dragon.

"I did," He said. "She's orange with leathery wings, isn't she?"

"But look at her stripes and eyes," Another Vruttom pointed out. "And what's that around her neck?"

"It looks like a necklace. Could be worth a lot of money."

"What will we do with the dragon? She might be upset that we'll take her necklace. Everyone knows dragons are extremely greedy when it comes to their treasure."

"We'll worry about that later. She's not as big as normal dragons. So, it'll be easier to subdue her." The leader said. "We'll capture her alive, and see what to do with her." He made a noose with his rope, and threw it her way.

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><p>Crystal gulped down the two-legged rabbit, sighing with satisfaction. She had been enjoying life on her own for the past several months. She could do whatever she wanted—including improving on her ice breath—hunt and eat whatever she wanted, and fly anywhere she wanted.<p>

It was every dracling's dream.

But she wasn't a dracling anymore. She was older and wiser, and was also quite lonely. She missed her family, even though her father basically disowned her, her sister was ashamed of her, and her mother didn't help her as much as Crystal thought she should have.

She still had nightmares of what happened that day, when she laid massacre on her clan, murdering her family. She didn't know how many survived, or if anyone survived. She had been so deep into her rage that everything seemed a blur of orange and white.

There were nights when she would lay curled up in her sleep, late at night, moaning and crying in her recurring nightmares. They were nightmares of blasting dragons with ice, and were filled with the screams of her parents.

Crystal shook her head, shivering from the memories. "That's in the past." She muttered. "Don't think about it. It's over and done with."

As she ducked her head to grab another mouthful of meat, something went whizzing by, barely grazing her ears. Her head shot up, looking to her right. It was a thick, dark-silvery rope knotted into a noose. It was on the ground, draping over her neck.

She looked to her left, spying strange yellow aliens. Her ears perked up in surprise. _Front-set eyes, walking on hind legs, using their front paws as utensils, wearing furless-skin; they must have aircrafts, or space ships, or whatever they're called…and they're trying to capture me!_

She quickly shook the rope off and took off into the sky. Then, an arrow flew through her wing, startling her and causing her to fall to the ground.

The yellow aliens surrounded her, aiming their guns and arrows at her. Crystal stood up, growling. Her wing had been injured, and was bleeding, so she wasn't sure if she could take off. She was going to have to fight her way out of this.

She swiped some down with her tail, roaring, and then froze a few others with her ice breath.

"I thought you said she was an Ignis!" The leader snarled.

"I did! I didn't know she could breathe ice!"

Crystal fought as hard as she could, but despite her strength, wits, and ice breath, she was vastly outnumbered. Ropes were thrown, grabbing her arms and legs. One alien clamped her mouth shut with one hand, and pulled off her usekh with the other, much to her horror.

"No!" She screamed, surprising the aliens. But it was too late.

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><p><strong>AN I think this is one of this story's longer chapters.**

**I don't know about any of you, but I think if someone was shrunken down and rearranged (for this example, a four-legged dragon is shrunken, and rearranged so it's kinda anthro-looking) there'd be a lot of pain, especially in the bones. Plus, when looking at the Hulk (who, again, wasn't part of Crystal's inspiration, just a coincidence) when Bruce Banner transforms into the Hulk, he looks like he's in pain, though I'm not sure if his bones expand, or just his muscles. I didn't see the 2008 Hulk movie, just _Thor_ and _Avengers_.**

**As I stated before (and forgot to say in the last chapter) I'm not very good at writing "action-y" scenes, mostly battle and war scenes. I do try my best, though I've gotten a tad bit lazy after taking a month-long break. I guess, all in all, I can imagine this great battle scene in my head, but can't really put it on paper...text, rather. So, hopefully my boring battle scenes don't put a huge damper on the story.**

**I came up with the yellow alien species name by going to an alien species name generator, which displays ten different alien species names randomly, and just chose one of them. Another thing I have trouble with is choosing names for characters/creatures, and creating alien species, for that matter. Kinda ironic in that I can create OCs that a lot of people seem to like, but I have trouble making a simple alien race :X Also, the prey on Drakonehm is just me taking random prey animals and making them unusual.**

**I had also wrote most of these chapters in one night, so I think I was also tired when I wrote them.**


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N I only own Crystal, the species of dragons, and the planet of dragons. Everything else is owned by Disney and Marvel.**

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><p>The first thing she felt was pain. It was similar to the pain that shrunk and rearranged her body months before. Now it was not only rearranging her body again, but stretching everything as well. And it was just as painful.<p>

But there was something else. Something Crystal couldn't quite decipher. As she hunched on the ground, crying out in pain, she became aware that her self-control was being slowly taken over by something bigger. It was as if something, or someone, had hypnotized her, and was starting to try and manipulate her. She tried to fight it, but wasn't strong enough.

All she could do was watch.

As soon as she was in her huge true form, Crystal glared at the Vruttoms with eyes that seemed to be purely icy-blue orbs, baring her sharp teeth. She threw her head back with a mighty roar, and reared up on her hind legs, causing the Vruttoms holding the ropes attached to her front legs to fly into the air, screaming and clinging to the ropes. She swiped her tail around, roaring and chasing the eight Vruttoms that were still unfrozen from her previous fight. She fired her icy breath, freezing two more of the yellow aliens.

This went on for several minutes, and she still didn't calm down. "Put her necklace back on!" The Vruttom leader yelled.

"What?! Why?" The Vruttom asked, clutching the usekh to his chest.

"Did you not see what happened?! She is out of control, unless that necklace is around her neck!"

"How will we put it on though? She won't stop moving for anything!"

The leader grabbed the rope Crystal shook off previously, and managed to lasso her mouth, clamping it shut. Two other Vruttom helped pulled rope down, keeping Crystal's head down, and trying to keep her from moving around so much.

The Vruttom grabbed the end of the rope, and strung it through the usekh. The three other Vruttoms let it slide past their hands, and another slid it down the rope and around her neck.

* * *

><p>While she raged about, attacking the yellow aliens with ice, tooth, and nail, Crystal tried her best to fight against her rage. It was as if her brain had been overtaken by a rage-inducing virus, and she was still critically ill.<p>

Then, through the fuzziness and anger, she felt something cool and heavy settle around her neck and on her shoulders. _Thank the dragons above, my usekh!_

The pain came again, this time shrinking her body down to its previous size. And she felt the overpowering rage begin to reside, clearing her mind. But with the pain and rage leaving her, there also came exhaustion, both from pain and raging. As her body slowed down its shrinking, she laid on the ground, panting heavily.

The Vruttoms stood where they were, keeping a hold of the ropes that held Crystal's arms, legs, and mouth. "…I think we can all agree to keep that necklace on her." The leader said breathlessly.

The five Vruttoms, who weren't frozen, nodded in agreement. The two aliens that helped their leader hold Crystal's mouth, and the one that wasn't holding one of her limbs, grabbed some large rocks, and began chipping the ice away, trying to save their four companions. Luckily, they were in the warmer parts of Drakonehm, and the ice was already beginning to melt.

"What should we do with her?" One Vruttom holding Crystal's leg asked. "Kill her?"

"Certainly not!" The leader shook his head, surprising the others. "She seems to be a rare sort of dragon: an Ignis who breathes ice."

"Fire dragons don't breathe ice," Another Vruttom pointed out. "Not normally, anyway."

"That's what makes her so rare. And she should make us a lot of money…all we need is to find the right buyer…and I think I have an idea." The Vruttom tapped his wide chin, and his thin lips curled into a smirk. "Let's tie her up and get her to the aircraft. I'll need to make a call."

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><p>Crystal was very confused, angry, and scared when she woke up. Her arms were tied together and against her chest, her legs and tail were tied together, her wings were tied to her body, and she had a muzzle. She was in a dark room all alone, and she was vaguely aware that it was moving. <em>Where am I? This doesn't look like Drakonehm.<em>

Her brain struggled to think back to what had happened. _I encountered those aliens…they tried to capture me, and they took my usekh…_She shuddered at the memory of losing the usekh, and essentially losing her sanity briefly. It reminded her of what happened to her clan that day.

Crystal shook her head, snorting as best she could. _Don't think about that; try to think about what happened to you._

She remembered when the usekh was placed back around her neck. At that time, it was the best feeling in the world. She smiled at the thought of it. _But then I fell unconscious…did those aliens take me back to their aircraft?_

Crystal growled at the thought of being kidnapped. _At least they know not to steal my usekh. Otherwise…_She didn't finish her thought.

Outside, the Vruttom leader, K'Dhae, was finishing up a visual call with his friend, a Plalseo named Gikan. He was a short, light-orange alien with a big belly, a flat round nose, and small, black eyes. He had a mop of darker orange hair, and wore an official-looking red trench coat over a black shirt and pants.

Gikan ran a traveling zoo, which was a giant saucer-shaped spaceship, filled with exotic animals from various planets. As a poacher, K'Dhae said that during his travels, he would keep an eye out for any animals that looked promising.

And promising the Ignis dragon that breathed ice did.

"You tellin' me the thing normally should breathe fire, but breathes ice instead?" Gikan asked incredulously.

"Believe me, old friend, I didn't believe it when I saw it." K'Dhae sighed. "She's a fighter even without her necklace. Froze two of my men, she did."

"'Without her necklace'?"

"Yeah. She's wearing some wide, golden necklace with purple gems. When we took it off, she suddenly turned into a bigger dragon and went on a rampage like you wouldn't believe. Froze two more men." He glanced back at the four Vruttoms laying side-by-side in a clear box that was slightly fogged from the heat inside. They were going to be dropped off at the hospital once they landed on the planet Gikan's zoo ship was currently residing. "So, keep the necklace on her."

Gikan nodded, stroking his chin. "How big is she?"

"Six feet tall, I think. Maybe a bit bigger. Her wings are probably about as wide as she is tall, and she has a long tail."

Gikan was already calculating how big a cage he would need to keep her in. "How much?"

"20,000 units."

"What?! 10,000 units."

"15,000."

"12,000. Last offer, K'Dhae."

Humming, the Vruttom nodded, "All right, you've got a deal. We'll be arriving in a couple hours, I suspect. And Gikan…don't take off her necklace." The visual message ended.

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><p>K'Dhae's small poacher ship soon found the planet, Slomia, where Gikan was stationed. Gikan stepped onto the smaller ship, leaving a large carrier on a low truck outside. "Welcome, old friend." D'Khae greeted, arms stretched outwards.<p>

"It's good to see you too, K'Dhae. Do you still have the dragon?"

"Indeed. Men! Bring her in!"

Four Vruttoms came out of a room, two of each dragging something by a rope. Dragged into the room was Crystal, with her arms and wings still tied up, though her legs were released so she could walk. Her snout was also tied shut by the ropes which she was being dragged by. She tossed her head around, huffing through her nostrils angrily. She glared at all of the aliens in the room, including the new light-orange one.

"So, this is the dragon you picked up from Drakonehm?" Gikan asked.

K'Dhae nodded. Gikan circled around Crystal, who eyed him untrustingly. "Quite an interesting specimen." He said. "And she breathes ice?"

"Just ask our still-critically-cold Vruttoms."

"And she has light-blue stripes and eyes instead of red." One of the Vruttoms holding the dragon added.

"Hmm. She'll make a good addition to my zoo."

"Do you have the units?" K'Dhae asked, rubbing his webbed hands.

Gikan nodded, tossing a closed, metallic box to the yellow alien. "Her carrier is outside. Follow me."

The Vruttoms dragged Crystal, still tossing her head and growling, out of the ship, and into the carrier, where she had to lay down and curl her tail around herself. They reached through closable holes, loosened the ropes around her upper body and snout, and pulled them out and quickly shut the holes.

Crystal shoved her shoulders against the sides of the carrier, roaring and blowing ice out through small holes in the door. All that did was throw tiny ice balls out of her carrier and freeze the inside of the carrier's door.

Gikan laughed loudly. "She _does_ breathe ice! She'll be the star of my collection! She is money well-spent."

"You're welcome, Gikan. Now, if you excuse me, I must escort my thawing Vruttoms to the hospital." D'Khae and the four other Vruttoms turned and went back into the airship.

Gikan grinned down at the carrier. "Yes, money well-spent indeed. Not only do I have a dragon, but one who is almost the size of us aliens, and can breathe ice, despite being born a fire-breather. Today must be my lucky day." Chuckling, he boarded the truck and began driving into his large airship.

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><p><strong>AN I've been kinda influenced in my writing by Stephen King lately (I've been reading Cujo for the past month) It really shows it in Crystal's POV during her "Hulk-out" (unless someone suggests something better, that's what I'll call it when she loses her usekh and turns into her true form) I'm also trying to write action-y scenes, including battle/war scenes a bit more detailed. Speaking of which, I've noticed when I'm describing a scene from a movie, I do pretty well; when I'm describing something in my head, that's another story. Not sure why it is...**

**I was originally gonna have Crystal be bought by a circus, and put in a lion tamer-esque act. But after a while, I realized this wouldn't really do so well with the story. So, I decided to put her in a zoo, though in this alien's case, "zoo" is used in a loose term. It's more of a collection of animals. I suppose like the Collector from the movie (kind of a weird dude, in my opinion) but with strictly animals.**

**So, if I write correctly, we should be meeting Rocket and Groot in the next chapter. After that, chapters won't come daily anymore; there'll be a bit of space in between updates.**


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N I only own Crystal, the species of dragons, and the planet of dragons. Everything else is owned by Disney and Marvel.**

**random: Funnily enough, even though I haven't seen Frozen, I know the general story and characters. And especially when I was writing the parts after Crystal leaves home and steals the usekh, it was very inspired by Let it Go. I just chose for Crys to have ice powers because it's different from the average fire-breathing dragon.**

**Stephen King is a famous writer, very well-known for writing horror stories, such as Cujo, Misery, Carrie, and The Shining, though he's written other genres of stories as well. He just has an interesting writing style, including small excerpts of backstory for secondary characters, and in the case of Cujo, writing in the POV of Cujo, who is a St. Bernard who comes down with rabies.**

**Maybe :)**

**I'm actually planning on writing a Felidae/Warriors crossover (both have cats as main characters, though the former is an adult horror/mystery film, and the latter is a whole series of feral cats living in clans in the forest) and more than likely will involve literal cat fights. So if and when I write that, I'll probably have quite a bit of practice in that field.**

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><p>Gikan drove the carrier next to a larger cage. This cage was made of thick bars all in a row, and a roof and floor made of solid steel, and a door that slid up and down, with a smaller door in the middle to allow food in.<p>

Gikan pressed a button, opening the carrier. Crystal ran out, smashing her face against two of the bars in the cage. She pulled the end of her snout out between two bars, shook her head, and looked over her shoulder just as the cage was closed at locked.

"You're a one in a million dragon," Gikan grinned, standing in front of the cage, stubby fingers laced. "You were meant to breathe fire, yet you breathe ice."

_Don't remind me._ Crystal growled. She had lost her voice from all of the roaring and growling, and something told her to not reveal that she could speak. Dragons had evolved to be able to speak all sorts of languages.

"You're going to make me so much money, I can taste it already." He slurped and licked his lips greedily, making the dragon cringe in disgust. "Yes, well-spent money indeed." He turned and left, laughing to himself.

Crystal sat down, leaning back against the bars of the cage. She stretched her legs forward, sighing heavily. She had the intention of leaving Drakonehm for months, but she didn't have this method in mind. She didn't think she would be kidnapped and sold. She didn't quite understand what she was meant to do in a cage, and she had a feeling she wouldn't like it.

* * *

><p>Crystal was right in that she wouldn't like her new life. She was stuck in a cage only big enough so she could stand, spread her wings all the way, and walk around. She was never let out to fly, and she certainly couldn't run around without almost smacking into the bars of the cage.<p>

Meat was slipped into the cage two times a day. She was also chained to the side of the cage whenever her cage was cleaned so she wouldn't escape. Each time the door was unlocked and relocked, she paid close attention to how the lock worked.

At some point, she slipped her tail through the bars, stuck the tip of her tail dagger into the keyhole, and jiggled it around, trying to unlock it. But she didn't know how to picklock, and she was caught by one of Gikan's workers.

As punishment, Crystal went a full day without food, and her tail dagger was painfully cut off so the end of her tail looked like a Terran lizard's, and so she wouldn't try to break out again.

Crystal nursed her injured tail, sending glares at anyone who walked by her cage. This included visitors to the zoo airship.

The airship she now lived in, called the CS Tesserae, was often frequented by tourists and planet locals, wanting to see the animals Gekin collected. It was more of a collection than a zoo, because the animals were in small cages that they could only walk and turn around in, as opposed to large exhibits that they could run around in. In this "zoo," Crystal was the newest attraction, being advertised as a rare dragon that was the size of a typical Terran.

For the first day, she laid curled up in the large cage, facing away from the crowd. The crowd was made up of all sorts of aliens in all sorts of colors, all gawking and pointing at her in awe and delight. But when Gikan saw Crystal ignoring the crowd, he smacked her nose through the bars with a cane, and poked at her until she turned around. Realizing how stiff her limbs were, she stood on her toes, stretching her legs, and spread her wings as far as they could, making the crowd cheer.

Gikan was right in that she would make him money. When word got out, everyone from all corners of the planet, and others for that matter, wanted to see the Terran Ice Dragon, as she was dubbed. She had been "coaxed" into showing her ice breath when Gikan turned off the air conditioner blowing into her cage, and she had to cool herself off.

After a while, Crystal "entertained" the crowds by pacing around her cage, either on all fours or on her hind legs, stretching her wings, and occasionally freezing the bars of her cage.

But she was also able to entertain herself, to an extent. While she lost her spear-shaped tail dagger, her tail was now fully-prehensile. While she was laying or sitting, leaning against the sides of her cage, she would slip her tail out between the bars, and would secretly take objects from visitors viewing her, including water bottles in carriers, food from bags, and wallets from pockets. But she had no use for them—unless she was thirsty or hungry—and left them in front of her cage, and pulled her tail back in, leaving everyone none the wiser.

But despite these little fun activities, Crystal still hated her current living situation. She could barely move around, she couldn't fly at all, and she had to keep silent; something inside her just told her to stay silent, or she would be in bigger trouble.

She was surprised the aliens that captured her—which she learned were called Vruttoms—didn't tell Gikan that she yelled out "no" when they removed her usekh.

* * *

><p>One day, Crystal was sitting in her cage, as usual. Every now and then, she would create a large ball of ice, which she would then gnaw on. It didn't satisfy her thirst, she was just bored.<p>

Very few people had come to the CS Tesserae. Only a few people were scattered about, most of which were looking at other caged creatures. Not that Crystal cared.

She heard a grumpy voice sound from behind. "…only promised to take you here because we got such a good load last time. So, you better be grateful."

"I am Groot." **[Very grateful.]**

Perking her ears up curiously, Crystal stood up and turned around, gripping two bars. She looked down in time to see a small, furry, gray creature with a dark mask, and bushy ringed tail walk by. He was dressed in an orange suit with black accents, and carried a large gun over his shoulder.

Following behind him was a tall, brown tree-like creature, He had green moss spattered across his body, and glanced around the ship with curiosity.

As the two walked by, Crystal's sharp nose picked up the scent of wood and moss, which she always liked. Then, her nose began to itch. She wrinkled it until it went away, sighing. But all of a sudden, she sneezed loudly, sending snowflakes flying towards the tree-like creature. _My stupid nose _always_ gets me in trouble!_

The tree creature froze and turned around. He had a somewhat flat face, with no nose, and small, black, kind-looking eyes. He cocked his head at her and approached the cage, forgetting about his friend.

Crystal stayed still and quiet, staring at the tree creature, who stared back at her. They remained silent for several seconds before Crystal whispered pitifully, before she could stop herself, "Help me."

The tree creature blinked in surprise and confusion. "Hey, Groot!" The voice from before yelled. "What the heck're you doing?" The furry creature trotted up to him. "What are you looking at?" He looked up at Crystal, and his eyebrows rose. "Never seen a dragon like this before."

"I am Groot." **[She asked me to help her.]**

"She 'asked' you? She talked?"

"I can hear you two." Crystal deadpanned.

The furry creature jumped, turning to her. "Well, ain't that nice? Well, look, Dragon, we're not staying for long. We only came because Groot wanted to visit the CS Tesserae. We're not heroes looking to rescue the innocent."

Crystal curled her teeth at the small alien. "Well, I had no way of knowing. All I want is for someone to get me out of this hellhole. Don't either of you know what it's like to be in a small cage, where the only things you can do is walk around in a small space and lay down?"

The furry creature's ears tilted in slight sympathy. "Yeah, I know. But why would we free you?"

"I am Groot!" **[Rocket! She's desperate.]**

"As much as I loathe to admit it, I _am_ somewhat desperate."

The creature, evidently named Rocket, did a double-take at the dragon. "You can understand Groot?"

"Sure. We Drakonehm dragons can understand almost all languages…though a select few escape us."

"You're from Drakonehm?"

"I was. I was captured by Vruttoms and sold to this greedy alien, who is exploiting me for money."

Groot moved his hand through the bars of the cage and patted Crystal's head sympathetically. She chuckled, leaning her head against the comforting pat.

"Listen, it looks like Groot wants to help you, but—"

"Hey!" Gikan stormed in, snarling like an animal. "Get away from her!"

Rocket jumped back, and Groot stepped away as well. "Step away from my dragon! Unless you want to be her next dinner! Scram!"

"Jeez, pushy." Rocket scoffed, walking away with a shake of his head. Groot followed him, glancing back sorrowfully at Crystal, who shrugged.

"Don't get any ideas about using baby-doll eyes to get away." Gikan hissed in the dragon's face. "Because I'm not losing anything that makes me big money!"

Curling her lip, Crystal blew a gust of ice into his face, creating thick frost on his nose and upper lip.

He jumped back, crying out in surprise. He wiped the frost off of his face, glaring at her. "For _that_, you can forget about eating, even if those two come back!" He stomped away, grumbling under his breath.

Even though she could already feel her stomach complaining of the upcoming hunger, Crystal felt that was worth it.

* * *

><p><strong>AN So, Gikan is very greedy when it comes to money (or units, as the GotG universe calls it; I might forget every now and then)**

**I was actually kinda torn between Crystal losing her tail dagger or not. On the one hand, she could use it as a weapon; on the other, in my mind, it'll make it easier for her to pickpocket. In the end, I decided she would lose it (ain't I nice? :3)**

**Not quite how I envisioned Rocket and Groot being introduced into the story, but whatever. Groot's pretty easy to write (I decided since this is written in Crystal's POV, and Drakonehm dragons understand multiple languages [they're totally lost on sign language though] I would translate Groot-speak) it's Rocket that I'm kinda having trouble with. I tried to make him kinda indifferent to Crystal's situation, but at the same time, understanding in terms of being kept in a small cage, which I assumed he would know from experience when it comes to his backstory, if that makes sense. Hopefully he's not too OOC though.**

**I'll probably post the next chapter tomorrow, since I want more Rocket and Groot involved before I switch to having chapters coming out every few days.**


	9. Chapter 8

**A/N I only own Crystal, the species of dragons, and the planet of dragons. Everything else is owned by Disney and Marvel.**

**NinjaDino721: Thanks :D I DO try to have my plots well thought out. I actually think them up months before I write them (this story, for example, I began "thinking up" before GotG came out on DVD) I'm glad you're liking this.**

**random gal: I guess that's true.**

**Yeah, he's such a sweetheart :3 Part of the reason why he's my favorite of the Galaxy Guardians.**

**That's also true. I didn't really think about that in advance, but I had it in mind when writing this chapter (you'll see what I mean) I hope I wrote him well in this.**

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><p>Rocket rubbed his temples, groaning. If he had longer hair, he would be tugging at it. He wanted to get out of the city before anyone recognized him or Groot, but his partner was the very thing keeping them there. All because he wanted to free some dragon he had just met.<p>

"Groot, seriously! She's a zoo animal—"

"I am Groot." He corrected his furry friend.

"All right, a zoo animal that talks. But that doesn't mean we need to save her. What, should we save every animal that talks to us and lives in a zoo?"

"I am Groot?"

"No, I didn't hear the others talk. I doubt they could. If they did, no doubt they'd be asking to be set free as well. What makes this dragon so special?"

Groot just stared down at Rocket with an expression that was somehow both stern and pleading.

The furry alien clenched his fists over his eyes in frustration. He then remembered the dragon was wearing some sort of wide collar-like necklace with large amethysts. _Could be worth a lot._ The greedy side of him whispered.

_Dragons aren't known to share their treasure._ His logical side countered.

_Maybe she'll be grateful enough when we save her that she'll let you have it._

Sighing, Rocket dropped his hands. "All right, buddy. You wanna save her? Fine. At night, let's go back."

Groot smiled widely, and grabbed Rocket in a hug. "Ack! Put me down, ya sap!" He shouted, squirming until the tree creature set him back down.

That night, Rocket and Groot snuck back into the CS Tesserae after it was closed. Gikan had announced earlier that day that it was the last day he and his zoo would be on Slomia.

So the thieving duo had to hurry.

It was fairly easy to sneak in. Gikan was so cheap that he didn't have security cameras, or any kind of security measures, for that matter; just a lot of locks, which Groot made quick work of destroying.

Rocket looked around in the dim lights for the dragon he and Groot met earlier that day. He didn't like being back here. He hadn't even wanted to go earlier that day. Being around the cage animals reminded him too much of his past, when he was nothing but a science experiment. He shivered at the memories of being vivisected and put back together, over and over, before he was able to escape.

Shaking his head of the memories, he continued to look around. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the large cage containing the orange and icy-blue dragon. She was curled up, asleep, with her arms crossed in front of her chest and necklace.

"Groot!" Rocket whispered harshly. "She's over here!"

Groot hurried over to the cage as Rocket climbed up the bars and on top.

Crystal was woken from her slumber by something skittering up the side and top of her cage. She blinked the sleep from her eyes, yawned, and looked to see a wooden creature with black eyes, and triangle-shaped peaks on the top of his head.

"Groot?" She mumbled, still a little sleepy. "Wha' are you doing here?"

"Shush!" Rocket said, looking down at her, upside down, from the roof of the cage. "We're bustin' you outta here."

Crystal smiled, now wide-awake. "Really?!"

"Shh! Don't talk so loud! You'll attract attention."

"The padlock is towards the middle," She said, nodding at the door. "The key's the only thing that unlocks it. I tried to unlock it with my tail dagger, but they caught me and cut it off."

"Hah! I don't need a key." Rocket grinned. He climbed onto the door, and stuck one claw into the keyhole. He jiggled it around, laying his ear against the door above the keyhole.

Crystal stood up and watched the furry alien with wide eyes. "What convinced you to help me?"

"It's not 'what,' it's 'who.' Groot really wanted to help you."

Crystal turned to Groot, who smiled at her. She smiled back. "Thank you, Groot."

"Don't thank us yet," Rocket said, still picking the lock. "You're not out yet. By the way," He grinned down at her, glancing at the usekh. "That's a nice-looking necklace you got."

Crystal fingered the gold plates and large amethysts. "It's the Usekh of Humanus. It's an ancient treasure of Drakonehm."

"How'd you get it in _your_ hands…or around your neck, rather?"

"I stole it." She shrugged.

"Really?" Rocket's eyebrows shot up. "Sure looks fancy…and expensive. How much do you think it's worth?"

Crystal narrowed her eyes, glancing at Groot, who shrugged. "It's a priceless treasure, both to Drakonehm and to me."

"Sure it is. But how much money do you think it could get? We could split it three ways."

"…I'm sorry, Mr. Rocket. I'm afraid you misunderstood me. I'm not giving you my usekh. It goes where I go." She said slowly. "It's more important than just how much it's worth."

"How so?" He asked, finally unlocking the door. But he didn't get down and open it.

"Believe me, it's better that you don't know." Crystal pushed the door open, to Rocket's surprise, and stepped out, stretching all of her limbs happily. "I can finally walk more than a tail's length!" She cheered.

"Shut up!" Rocket exclaimed, jumping down.

"What's going on out there?!" A voice yelled.

Crystal's eyes widened, recognizing the voice as Gikan's. "Run!" Rocket shouted. He and Groot ran to the entrance, with Crystal following close behind on all fours. The other caged animals, awakened by the loud voices, cheered for their escaped comrade.

Just as they were approaching the exit, Gikan and all of his workers, which were dozens of other Plalseoes, blocked their way.

Rocket and Groot skidded to a halt. "You two again?" Gikan growled. "Don't try to free my dragon!"

"Too late, fatty." Rocket grinned. He and Groot stepped to the sides, revealing Crystal, who was standing on her hind legs.

Gikan's face morphed into one of surprise and horror. When Crystal was in her cage, he could control her better, and had dominance over her. But when she was outside, and he was without a weapon, he was powerless.

Smirking, Crystal breathed ice on the floor beneath the Plalseoes' feet, making it slippery like an ice rink. Gikan and some of his workers slipped about, waving their arms around to try and keep their balance. The others managed to charge towards the three other aliens.

Rocket climbed onto Groot's shoulder as the Flora Colossus roared, swiping the oncoming aliens away with his long arms, which grew bigger, with more branches branching out. Rocket cocked his gun and fired at the Plalseoes with good accuracy.

Crystal swiped at the Plalseoes with her tail, throwing punches at them when they attacked her, and used her teeth at times as well. She then saw Gikan trying to run away. Growling, she followed him outside and blew a large ice beam at the running alien, freezing him in his tracks in a large block of ice. "Let's go, boys!" She called.

Nodding, Groot followed after her. Rocket jumped to the ground and ran after them, leaving the dead and unconscious Plalseoes behind.

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><p>Crystal slowed down in the forest, panting. Having stayed in a small space for several days, she was a bit out of shape.<p>

Groot and Rocket caught up to her, glancing back to see if anyone was following. "That's a first: a dragon breathing ice." The furry creature remarked.

"Is that a problem?" Crystal snapped bitterly. Her having ice breath had gotten her into so much trouble, that while it was a good weapon, she was starting to take offence when someone pointed it out.

"Hey, not at all!" Rocket held his hands up. "It gave us a head start in that battle back there."

"I am Groot." **[It's very unique.]** Groot agreed, smiling.

"Yeah? My clan thought so too, though not in a good way." She scoffed.

"Look, Dragon—"

"Crystal…though I prefer Crys." She interrupted. _I think it might be high time to have a different name._

"Crys, we got you out of that prison—"

"And I thank you both very much. I owe you one."

"Yeah, and I got an idea: how about seeing how much this usekh is worth?" Rocket suggested, climbing onto Crys's shoulder and examining it closely.

Scowling, Crys shrugged her shoulder, knocking him to the ground. "I already told you, Ringtail, I can't give it to you."

"Why the hell not? Are dragons really that greedy with their treasure?" Rocket asked, standing and brushing himself off.

"That, I suppose, and because if it's removed from me…it's dangerous. Let's just say that, and leave it at that. Again, thank you, both of you, for getting me out of that prison. I owe both of you a great debt." Bowing her head briefly, Crys turned and took off into the sky, laughing with joy as she was able to fly again.

"Jeez, greedy dragons." Rocket grumbled. "'If it's removed from me, it's dangerous.' How dangerous could she be if her necklace is stolen?"

"I am Groot." **[Leave her alone. It must mean a lot to her.]** The Flora Colossus chided.

"I just don't get how it'd be 'dangerous' if it's taken."

* * *

><p><strong>AN I don't really know why I didn't have Groot-speak translated at the beginning of the chapter. But with Rocket's responses, I think it's pretty easy to figure out what he's saying.**

**Speaking of Rocket, I figured he had seen Crystal's usekh, and with it being gold and having large gems, he would think it could be expensive. So, he's only agreeing to rescuing her because he thinks she can help them get rich. Of course, he doesn't know what will happen when the usekh is removed. And the only reason he agreed for the money is because A) he was only interested in catching Starlord, in the movie, because he had a large bounty over his head, and B) most thieves are "in it" for the money. And I reckon he and Groot do it to stay alive as well, buying food, at least for Rocket. He probably doesn't live primarily off of wild food and trash, like Terran raccoons.**

**I'm really trying to get more details in my battle/ war scenes. I'm not necessarily obsessing over it, I just know I need practice with them, and I'm trying to get as much practice with them as I can.**

**The reason Crystal's shortened her name is because she's kinda trying to leave the past behind her. Even though it's a shortened version of her name, it's a different name nonetheless. So, she'll be referred to as "Crys" from here on out instead of "Crystal."**

**As I said, I'm gonna leave some space in between chapters after this one. I actually prefer leaving breaks between chapters because not only does it give other people a chance to read the newly-uploaded chapter before the new one comes in, but writing chapters in one fell swoop can be kinda tiring. I prefer taking my time with them by writing a little each day. So, when there's no new chapter tomorrow, don't be alarmed.**


	10. Chapter 9

**A/N I only own Crystal, the species of dragons, and the planet of dragons. Everything else is owned by Disney and Marvel.**

**The Rainbow Devowerer: Yep :) Glad you like this.**

**aandm20: Thanks :)**

**random gal: I figured that would be how Rocket would think at least.**

**I actually had big writer's block, and was kinda lazy with writing. But I finally got it done.**

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><p>As Crys settled on a strong tree branch to go to sleep, she thought back to the curious duo who rescued her.<p>

Rocket seemed somewhat rude and greedy. But at the same time, he seemed like he held a lot of secrets. She thought back to when he said he understood what it was like to be in a small cage. And his eyes held sympathy for a minute. So, she wondered what happened to him to cause him to have that sympathy.

And then there was Groot. He was a creature unlike one Crys had ever seen. She had seen trees her whole life, and she had seen her fair share of aliens. But she had never seen an alien tree until that day. Even though most people thought he was simply saying "I am Groot," but to her, and apparently Rocket, he was speaking like any other person. He just didn't say much. And he was quite a friendly and sweet creature. After all, he was the first to see Crys, and actually responded to her plea, and evidently convinced his friend to help as well.

Crys felt Rocket and Groot were one of those duos who when separate, they didn't look like they could go together, but when they were together, they just clicked. And she had seen them in battle. They worked together well in every way.

As she drifted off to sleep, she wondered if they would ever bump into each other again.

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><p>Early in the morning, Crys's ear twitched at the sounds of yells from a long ways away. Lifting her head and shaking the sleep from her head, she looked around until she determined which direction the sounds were. Then, she jumped to the ground, stretched, and ran in that direction.<p>

Poking her head through some bushes, she saw Rocket surrounded by several Plalseoes, all holding spears. The furry alien had his ears pinned back, was growling, and his hind leg was bleeding. His gun was held on his back by a leather strap.

Crys leapt up and into the "battlefield," landing near Rocket, on two legs, with a loud thump. The Plalseoes jumped in surprise, but recognized her. "Fancy seein' you again, Crys." Rocket remarked.

"Where's Groot?"

"We got separated. He's probably looking for me."

The Plalseoes finally attacked. Crys leapt into the air, hovered, and spun around, freezing a circle of the Plalseoes and creating a sort of icy crater. Rocket climbed and jumped out of the "crater," but didn't get very far before a Plalseo smacked him to the ground.

Narrowing her eyes, Crys froze the ground under the Plalseoes and Rocket, causing them to slip as they ran. Then, she ran across the ice on all fours, grabbed the back of Rocket's suit in her mouth, and leapt up, pumping her wings.

Blinking in surprise at being suddenly grabbed, Rocket twisted himself around and climbed onto her neck. Her neck spines were short and flexible, and he was able to sit between them directly in front of her usekh.

The Plalseoes didn't give up easily. One who had lost its spear grabbed a rock and threw it at Crys with surprising strength and accuracy. It hit her hard in the leg, causing her to begin falling. She managed to glide further and into a forest before tumbling to the ground, head over heels, making Rocket skid across the ground as well.

Groaning, Crys rubbed the back of her neck, freezing when she didn't feel the hard gold plates. "Oh no!" She gasped. "My usekh!"

"So you lost your necklace," Rocket scoffed standing up slowly. "Big deal."

"You don't understand! I need my…my usekh—" She groaned in pain, clutching her head.

Rocket turned to her, his unspoken harsh words dying in his throat as he saw what the lack of usekh did to Crys. Her cries of pain morphed into angry roars as she grew into a huge dragon, with long back spines, powerful muscles, giant wings, and angry icy-blue eyes. She threw her head back in a mighty roar.

The Plalseoes, who came running, froze at the sight of the angry dragon. Growing, Crys advanced towards them, baring her sharp teeth.

_I'm not giving you my usekh. It goes where I go. It's more important to me than just how much it's worth…If it's removed from me…it's dangerous._ Rocket's mind played back the hidden warnings Crys gave him and Groot when the furry alien tried to take the usekh for money. He found himself looking around for the gold necklace, hoping the rogue dragon didn't find him as she chased, froze, and fought the Plalseoes.

Finally, he found the usekh. It had grown when it fell off of Crys's neck, but was the same as it had been before: same golden plates, and same large amethysts.

Rocket stared at the large necklace with greedy eyes, trying to calculate how much it would go for in the black market. But the small logical part of his mind said that Crys would continue to rage without the usekh, and possibly go after him should he run with it.

Finally, a familiar alien ran through the trees, black eyes lighting up when he saw his friend. He froze when he saw Crys as a raging, huge dragon, and stared at Rocket, who still held the usekh. "I am Groot?" **[What's happened?]**

"This is why she needs her necklace, buddy." Rocket said, standing. He looped the usekh around his shoulder and stood up, finally making a decision. "Distract her, and I'll try and get it back on her. Just be careful, she has ice breath."

Groot nodded, and lifted Rocket onto his own broad shoulders. He ran with long strides to the still-roaring dragon, who had just frozen the last Plalseo.

Crys turned to the Flora Colossus running towards her, and narrowed her eyes. She breathed an ice beam to him, but he jumped to the side with surprising speed, and threw out his long arm towards her. His arm and fingers grew and grabbed her snout, clamping it shut. Rocket ran up Groot's arm and clung to the dragon's neck as she pulled away from Groot, ripping his arm in half, and began tossing her head around.

Groot backed away from her, roaring at her to keep her distracted. She chased after him, growing, with steam appearing to blow out of her nose, similar to one's breath being seen when the air was cold.

Rocket scurried up to Crys's head, hanging on as tight as he could with his legs just behind her horns. He pulled the usekh off of his shoulder, stretched forward, and swung the necklace, managing to hook it around the end of her snout. Before she could notice him, he pulled it down over her ears and horns, and slid backwards down her neck.

Crys began shrinking, groaning in pain again as her body shrunk and rearranged its bones and limbs. Rocket fell off of her, but was caught by Groot before he hit the ground. Cry collapsed on the ground as her body was finally back to the form she had lived as for over a year. She pushed herself up, groaning in pain, as the memories of the past several minutes came back: finding Rocket, helping and rescuing him from the Plalseoes, losing her usekh, and thus going rogue.

She held a hand over her eyes, sighing heavily. She had endangered both of her new friends—she vaguely remembered Groot coming and distracting her—and they had seen how dangerous she could be without her usekh. Part of her was glad Rocket had seen the dangers, but she still felt bad.

Groot slowly approached Crys, ignoring Rocket's hisses to leave her alone, and crouched on one knee by her. He felt her guilt and sorrow, and somehow knew she hadn't meant to go rogue. Rocket had told him all he knew about dragons the previous night, including that they normally looked like how Crys looked today without her usekh. So her usekh must have some form of magic concealing her true form.

He laid his hand on her shoulder, ignoring her flinch, and smiled gently down at her as she turned to look at him, tears in her eyes. He moved his hand up to stroke down her head and rub behind one ear.

Sniffling, Crys nudged her head against his chest, muttering that she was sorry. Groot said nothing, and wrapped his arm across her shoulders.

Rocket stood off to the side, staring at the strange sight of a dragon, who had previously roared and attacked like a wild animal, being comforted by a gentle giant of a Flora Colossus. He slowly approached them, eyeing Crys as tears ran down her round furry cheeks.

She saw him out of the corner of her eye. She turned to him and said, "Rocket…I'm so sorry."

"…Now I know what you meant by it being dangerous if you lost your usekh." He chuckled dryly. One eye squinted as a small pulse of pain shot through his still-injured leg.

Crys's ears perked up at the dried blood on the furry alien's pants, remembering when she first saw him among the Plalseoes. "You're injured!"

Eyes widening, Groot left the dragon, grabbed up his friend, and ran out of the forest. Cocking her head, Crys followed after them.

They came upon a small camp, with a put-out fire, small sleeping bag, and a white box with a red plus on it. It was a wonder no one found the camp.

Groot set Rocket down and managed to open the box with one hand, as his other had been reduced to a few roots. He took out some wide bandages as Rocket pulled the leg of his pants up.

Crys took the bandages and tore them into thinner strips while Groot cleaned Rocket's leg and covered it in medicine. Crys helped the Flora Colossus dress the furry alien's wound.

"So, what's the deal with that necklace?" Rocket asked. "And what exactly is your story?"

"Like I said, it was a treasure on Drakonehm. It turns the wearer into this form, but at a heavy price: our true forms are constrained, and when the usekh is removed…I have a theory that the magic creates energy in order to constrain our true forms, and when the magic is taken away, and the energy causes us to turn into our true forms, the energy causes our aggression to skyrocket. But sometimes things just can't be explained, I suppose. For me, it's both a gift and a curse."

"I am Groot?" **[Why did you steal it in the first place?]** Groot asked.

Taking a deep breath, Crys said, "Let's just say in my clan, an Ignis that breathes ice…I'm surprised I'm still alive. Something happened…something horrible…and I just left." She shuddered at the memories. Groot and Rocket glanced at each other in confusion. "I just wanted to be different. Not necessarily when it comes to my ice breath, but…I didn't want to be the same dragon as…that day. The fear of becoming that dragon, of having that rage…that makes me more scared about losing my usekh than any other dragon wearing it."

Rocket and Groot figured they wouldn't get the "something horrible" out of Crys anytime soon, but they mostly understood why she wanted the usekh. "Um…thanks, for back there, I guess." Rocket said.

Crys smiled, understanding that he didn't usually thank people, except for Groot, for helping him. "Certainly. I'm sorry that you had to see me at my worse."

"Well, what're you gonna do now?"

"Honestly…I have no idea. I guess avoid getting caught again? I'm a long, long away from home…but I don't want to go back home."

Suddenly, there was a sharp, short _whoosh_. Rocket yelped in pain, reaching back to feel his shoulder. His eyes widened when he felt a dart. "Oh, sh—" He fell unconscious.

"I am Groot!" **[Run!]** Groot exclaimed, grabbing up the furry alien.

Crys took off deeper into the forest, slowing down when she didn't hear the heavy footsteps behind her anymore. Looking back, she saw Groot surrounded by several purple aliens with long hooved legs, large tusks poking out of the corners of their mouths, and blue horse-like tails. They were all wearing gray clothing with golden badges.

Crys ran back to Groot and Rocket, who was still unconscious, and froze one alien. Another alien shot a dart at her, getting her in the left thigh. She growled in pain and staggered on her feet, moaning as she collapsed on the ground. The purple aliens and Groot stared down at her as her vision darkened.

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><p><strong>AN As I said earlier, I had a lot of writer's block with this chapter, and was kinda lazy about getting it done. Hopefully, though, it's still going fine.**

**One scene I always had in mind, before I wrote this story, was Crys freezing the ground when she and/or Rocket are fighting other aliens; then she slides on her belly, grabbing Rocket by the back of his shirt as she slides by him. This chapter also kinda shows how big she is compared to at least Rocket: he's able to ride on her neck/shoulders just fine.**

**I'm not sure if I described how her back spines looked when she's in anthro-form (in her true form, they're long and thin like icicles) But I felt it would look better if they were short. I'm not sure if it would be "anatomically-correct" for them to be flexible. I tend to add logic to my stories, but I also try to remember that most of the fanfics I write are based on fantasy.**

**Now Rocket's seen what the lack of usekh does to Crys. I hope he wasn't too OOC in deciding to give it back to her. But I think even if he tried to leave, Groot would catch him and convince him to give it back to her.**

**If you're wondering how Rocket can do all that with an injured leg...adrenalin's an interesting thing ;)**

**I was originally gonna have her join Rocket and Groot after the whole fiasco, but it didn't seem right. I was planning on having them get caught and imprisoned anyway (it's how Crys gets her "criminal reputation") so I felt this would be better.**

**The aliens that caught them are called Draalps. The name was from _Fantasy Name Generators_, while the description was briefly taken from _Alien Species Generator _at _Scifi Names_. Again, I tend to not be good at coming up with alien species ^^;**

**Hopefully the next chapter won't take so long to write and upload as this one did.**


	11. Chapter 10

**A/N I only own Crystal, the species of dragons, and the planet of dragons. Everything else is owned by Disney and Marvel.**

**random gal: Thanks :D Glad he isn't too OOC. Yeah, I guess that's true, I didn't really think about that. Maybe he was just tired? Not only did he get injured, but he also had to briefly deal with a rogue Crys.**

**Guest: I makes it more interesting, in my opinion. Plus, in regards to the ending of the last chapter, Rocket and Groot are wanted criminals; Crys was simply captured because she fought the Draalps, and was considered dangerous.**

**Thanks :)**

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><p>When she woke up, Crys was sitting, with her arms, legs, tail, and neck strapped to the chair she was in, and there was something on her head, strapped tightly under her chin.<p>

As her blurry vision sharpened, she saw the aliens that attacked Rocket, Groot, and her. She growled and tried to open her mouth to bite or fire ice, but found that her muzzle was tied up as well.

One alien tapped some buttons on a nearby machine. Crys felt pinpricks in her head. They were no more painful than a splinter in her foot. What was painful, however, were the electric shocks pulsing through the needles that sunk themselves into her skull from the helmet on her head. High-pitched screams came from her nose, her body spasmed, and her claws sunk into the chair.

On a computer screen, which she couldn't see, information came up about the dragon: her name, age, gender, and details about her past life. What she didn't know was that this machine looked through the memories in her brain, including the crimes she committed, and displayed them on a screen for the aliens, called Draalps, to see.

Crys's crimes were several counts of homicide and attempted homicide, and one count of thievery. The fact that she associated and worked with two other criminals didn't help her much either.

Finally, the painful pulses stopped, the needles were pulled out of her head, and the helmet was taken away. Crys collapsed as much as she could in her confined situation, panting through her nose.

A tall Draalp approached her, arms behind his back. He too wore a gray uniform, and a golden badge. The badge had the name "Bloshckor" on it. "If you promise to not bite or breathe ice on us, we'll take away the muzzle." He bargained.

Narrowing her eyes, Crys nodded once. She sighed with relief when the tight cloth was untied from around her snout. "Now then, are you Crystal?"

"I prefer 'Crys,' but yes."

"And you've committed several counts of homicide and attempted homicide? It means murder." Bloshckor added.

"…Yes." She grumbled. She didn't know why she was admitting this, but she was still recovering from the pain she endured, and was too tired to try and lie.

"And you stole a precious treasure?" He tapped the usekh, which was still around her neck, with dark-blue hooved-fingers.

"Yes. It must stay on me."

"We're aware of the Usekh of Humanus and its powers. And we'll contact the prison guards with this information. However, it will be _your_ responsibility of keeping it on and not jeopardizing our lives. Now then, you're to come with us. This is your first time in prison, yes? Well then, you're in for a real treat." He smirked as Crys gave him an incredulous look as she was released from the chair, only to have her wrists shackled.

She was shoved into a room, where mugshots were taken of her from the front and sides. Then, she was shoved into a cage with a bunk bed, toilet, sink, and a single chair. She growled over her shoulder at the treatment, and sat in her chair, sighing heavily. "A fine mess you've gotten yourself into, Crys."

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><p>As night began to fall, the prisoners were led into the mess hall for dinner. Crys curled her lip at the tray she held, which had disgusting-looking food. She wasn't picky, but she wasn't stupid either; she knew better than to eat what looked like rotten food.<p>

Her ears perked up when he saw a familiar Flora Colossus. She slowly approached him and Rocket, wondering if they would be somehow upset with her.

They were both sitting at a table, all alone. Rocket was wearing a green prison uniform, and was poking at his tray of food. He turned to the side, finally noticing Crys. "Well, if it isn't Ms. Ice Thief."

"Don't snap at me, Ringtail." She frowned. "It wasn't my fault we were caught."

"You probably attracted their attention with your rogue attack."

"I never meant to lose my usekh." She sat down across from the duo, letting her tray smack onto the table. "And besides, it was the Plalseoes' fault that happened, which means it was their fault we were caught."

"I am Groot!" **[Stop arguing! This isn't helping.]** Groot frowned, sounding surprisingly stern.

"He's right," Rocket sighed. "What we really need to think about is escaping."

"How?" Crys scoffed. "These walls look indestructible. And so do the ceiling and floor."

"I got a plan. You're in a cell on ground floor, right?"

"Yes."

"Okay. It seems that this prison was built directly on the dirt. And the floor's made of concrete slabs pushed tightly together."

"So if we remove the slabs, we'll be able to dig out?"

"Precisely, my icy-breathed friend." Rocket nodded. "But here's the tricky part: according to the 'locals,' the guards patrol past the cells at night. So, it'll be slow work digging out, unless you can dig within sight of them without them noticing."

"I have some ideas." Crys smirked.

"Great. Luckily, Groot and I are in the same cell, and are on ground floor as well. So, at night, when there are less guards around, we'll pry up the concrete slabs, and start digging. But remember: we have to be discrete."

Back in her cell, Crys paced around and around, and patted the ground, until she found a crack in the floor. It was near the bed and by the wall facing the outdoors. Making sure she wasn't being watched, she dug at the concrete with her hard claws until she created a large piece that she could finally lift up. As Rocket said, underneath was pure dirt.

She lay on the ground so she looked like she was curled up asleep, and was in front of the hole. Looking over her shoulder, she began digging away. The dirt wasn't too hard to dig through.

_Wait! What am I going to do with this excess dirt?_ Looking around, she spied the sink and toilet. She took a handful of dirt, and poured it down the sink drain hole. Then she took another handful, and dropped it in the toilet.

Once she was starting to feel tired from digging and hiding the dirt, she flushed the toilet and ran the sink until the dirt was gone—she had seen other inmates using the toilet and sink, so she knew what to do. Then, she covered the hole with the piece of concrete, laid down in front of it, and fell asleep.

It took several for Crys to dig the tunnel. Luckily, she got a roommate, a female Draalp named Varae, who was more than happy to help with the digging. Crys would sit directly in front of her new friend, who dug with three-fingered hands. The dragon was big enough so that Varae was able to dig without being spotted. The guards were none the wiser, thinking that the other prisoner was simply sitting behind the dragon.

Finally, a few weeks after being caught and imprisoned, Crys and Varae met up with Rocket and Groot again. "How's the tunnel goin' along?" The furry alien asked.

"Great." Crys said. "With Varae helping," She patted her on the shoulder. "It's going along twice as fast."

"Good. How long do you think until you hit the outside surface?"

"I'm not sure. We'll probably try digging upwards tonight."

"I'll do it," Varae volunteered. "I'm smaller than you."

"How's your and Groot's tunnel coming along?"

"It's going, don't you worry. I predict that either tonight or tomorrow, we'll get out of this dump."

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><p>Sure enough, that night, Varae was digging upwards in the tunnel, as promised. She squealed when her hand broke through the surface, and felt a cold wind. She turned around and popped up behind Crys. "We've got wind, Crys."<p>

"Excellent." Crys grinned. "Don't make a wide hole; we wouldn't want anyone to get suspicious. Just dig out a makeshift room big enough for me. Then, when Rocket gives us the okay, we'll go down, and pull the concrete slab over us."

"You do it, I'm beat."

Sighing, Crys ducked down into the tunnel to dig the "room" she described. Luckily, Varae had taken the sheets out of the bunk beds, saying she didn't like sheets or blankets, and tucked them into the top bunk, creating a sort of canopy for the bottom bunk. The guards didn't seem to care. If they didn't see Crys, they assumed she was asleep in the bottom bunk.

The next day, during lunch, Rocket gave the okay for the females to dig out. "Groot and I are ready to go too. Just don't get caught."

"We haven't been caught once, right V?" Crys grinned.

"Not one single time." She nodded.

"There's a first time for everything." Rocket warned.

Late that night, after the last guard left, Crys nudged Varae awake. "Come one, we got a prison to escape."

Varae leapt to her feet as the dragon lifted the concrete slab up. She jumped down the hole and crawled to the end of the tunnel, pausing as Crys stepped down and pulled the slab back over the hole. "We'll have to go fast," Varae said. "Or they'll realize something's up."

"Lead the way."

Nodding, Varae stood up, dug away more dirt away from the small hole created yesterday. She pulled herself up out of the hole, and stood outside the prison, taking a deep breath of the fresh air. "I haven't smelled the fresh night air of Slomia in months!"

"That's nice, but might want to keep it down." Crys said, climbing out of the hole. "All right, we need to find Rocket and Groot before—"

A bright light suddenly glared over the two aliens. "Freeze!" A voice yelled out.

"Before we're caught." Crys deadpanned.

"Run!" Varae took off to the right. Crys followed close behind on all fours, looking around for Rocket and Groot.

Finally, she saw them run away from another hole by the prison. "You're just getting out?!" Crys exclaimed.

"I had to get my stuff!" Rocket snapped back, climbing onto Groot's shoulder. The Flora Colossus caught up to Crys and Varae.

Glancing behind them, the female Draalp saw a large group of Draalps trailing after them. "Good luck, guys!" She suddenly yelled, darting to the left, bellowing deeply and loudly. A portion of the Draalp army followed after her.

Crys stalled for a split-second in concern for her friend, but sped up again at the sight of the remaining Draalps and the sound of Rocket and Groot's yells. "Where are we going?" She asked.

"We're lookin' for a small ship to hijack." He answered, still on Groot's shoulder.

Crys searched around, spying an aircraft that wasn't being guarded. It wasn't as big as the CS Tesserae, but it would easily fit her, Rocket, and Groot. "How about that one?"

Rocket looked to where she was pointing, and saw a Draalp security aircraft. "Perfect!"

As soon as they reached it, Groot threw open the door. Rocket dove in, followed by Crys, and finally Groot jumped in.

Rocket was already at work, hacking into the ship's wiring. His hands flew, and he didn't glance back as the Draalp army came closer and closer. "Hurry, they're coming!" Crys cried.

"Give me a minute!" Rocket growled. Finally, the ship revved to life. Grinning, he grabbed the controls, and the ship took off into the sky, leaving some angry Draalps behind. "Let's agree to never come back to Slomia again?" He asked.

"At least until they forget about us." Crys nodded.

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><p><strong>AN I know this update was very slow. My only excuse is writer's block, probably not good, but good enough for me.**

**The Draalp's methods of finding out a person's criminal record when they don't have one was made up by me.**

**Since Rocket said he and Groot escaped several prisons before the movie took place (23, I think he said?) I figured it might be a good idea to show one, especially with Crys's involvement. I had a tad bit of trouble coming up with an escape method because A) I've never been to prison, so I wouldn't know the first thing about escaping; B) I've never seen prison escape movies, to my knowledge; and C) I've never played The Escapists, nor was interesting in watching any YouTube Let's Plays of it. So, I figured the easiest was to go the old-fashioned way: digging out.**

**I feel the ending to this chapter was less than perfect, but I'm tired of leaving this story in the dust, so it'll have to do. Hopefully the next chapter won't take so long to upload. I want to get Crys into the movie as soon as possible, but I don't want to do a big time jump or drag it out for too long. I have to find the perfect medium (is that the correct term?)**


	12. Chapter 11

**A/N I only own Crystal, the species of dragons, and the planet of dragons. Everything else is owned by Disney and Marvel.**

**xXTigress1776Xx: Thanks for the reviews XD Sorry for not responding to each individual one, it's late, and I need to do this fast. But I'm glad you like this so far.**

**The Rainbow Devowerer: They will ;) Three best friends; friendly friends (reference to a Pokemon game ;)) The movie actually comes into play in this chapter.**

**random gal: Yeah, she was. I kinda had fun writing her.**

**Thanks :) I don't think anyone's come up with this; plus, since it's alien technology, it can be that advanced. Better than a lie detector (unless one can have fake memories)**

**Ah, thanks :) I'm still learning writing, even after being on here for over four years, and I feel I've barely scratched the surface. Even though it's not likely I'll be a professional writer, I still like learning about writing further (that didn't make much sense XD) Okay, thanks :)**

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><p>Crys's eyes widened as she stared out the windows of the aircraft as it soared away from Slomia. The sky was dark, dark-blue, with vague purple smoke-like swirls, and thousands upon thousands of stars.<p>

"Pretty, huh?" Rocket asked offhandedly.

"'Pretty'? It's beautiful!" She exclaimed. "I didn't think anything could be such a gorgeous sight. I could stare at it all day." Her ears tilted in thought and slight sadness. "I hope Varae's all right."

"I am Groot." **[I'm sure she's all right.]** He said kindly.

"So, Crys, Groot and I've been talking," Rocket said, still driving the aircraft. "And he's apparently taken a shine to you."

Crys smiled shyly. "Aw, that's sweet, Groot."

The Flora Colossus rubbed the back of his neck, smiling as well. "And despite your…necklace needs, you've kinda grown on me as well." Rocket continued. "And we…well, mostly Groot, were curious if, since you don't seem to have any plans-"

"All right."

The furry alien blinked in surprise. "'All right'? All right what?"

"If you two want me to accompany you so badly, I will." She grinned. "Besides, as you said, I have no plans of my own. And you both have grown on me."

"…Ah, okay. Great." Rocket nodded. "But we're both thieves, Groot and I. So, you'll have to learn to be sneaky and sly."

"Sneaky and sly, right. How does this thing work?"

Rocket glanced over his shoulder to see Crys staring up the end of his gun. "Hey! That ain't for playin' with!" He exclaimed, snatching it and placing it back on his back, where it originally was. "How'd you get it without me noticing?"

"Two things: the spear on my tail was taken off, and I was very bored on the Tesserae." The dragon explained, her tail tip twitching. "So, I had to entertain myself."

"Huh. Not bad." Rocket smirked. "Crys, with your tail tactics, Groot's strength, and my gun, I think we're gonna get rich someday."

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><p><em>Five Years—and several crime jobs—later…<em>

Xandar. A planet some say could be considered an equal to Earth/Terra, depending on who's talking. Unlike Earth/Terra, Xandar is home to Xandarians, and many other species of aliens. While it is rare that Terrans visit or live in Xandar, it isn't unheard of either.

Xandar was also known for being part of a war with the Kree Empire, though a treaty had been signed. Xandar was ruled by Irani Rael, the Nova Prime, and peace was kept by the Nova Corps.

It was this planet that Rocket, Groot, and Crys were currently residing.

During the past five years with Rocket and Groot, Crys had learned a lot about being a thief and bounty hunter: you had to be sneaky, discrete, a good liar, and be very fast when running from anyone, including angry cops. Crys was able to be sneaky and discrete with her tail, and was very fast on both her legs and wings, but it took her a lot of practice to become a good liar. Her ice breath also came in handy during fights.

Crys felt that she also grew up from the scared newly-turned anthro dragon to a more mature, aware dragon. She was more aware of how the world worked outside of Drakonehm, and of other alien species. She was aware of how they could be either kind to a stranger they barely met, or kick you while you're down, and laugh about it as they do so. "It's a shitty world out there, Crys," Rocket once sighed. Crys was lying on Groot's legs, as he sat back against a wall, and Rocket himself was lying back against Crys's side and folded hind leg. "People might say they would give their earnings to the poor and help the unfortunate to their buddies, but when they're confronted with the situation, they'll always have second thoughts."

Crys's ears bent back, and her hands clenched her arms, which were crossed in front of her chest—this had become a habit ever since she began wearing her usekh. When she was young, she didn't think there was any evil in the world. Her young, immature mind couldn't comprehend it. But now that she had seen the world for what it was, she was having second thoughts.

Yes, she had stolen, murdered—though not intentionally at first—and escaped prison, but she had no other life. She had discarded her previous life when she attacked her colony in a fit of rage. She thrust herself into a new, scary world without knowing what to do in her new life and body. Rocket and Groot eventually offered a new life, and teachings of the world outside of Drakonehm, and she accepted, having nowhere else to go.

Now she had her arms crossed across her chest again, but this time she was standing up, leaning back against a building. Her hind claws occasionally tapped the concrete, and the tip of her tail twitched.

A green Terran-looking man stepped by her, freezing and glancing down at her usekh. His eyebrows shot up, and Crys could swear she saw money signs dance in front of his eyes. "Say, Ms. Dragon, that's an awful nice necklace."

"…Oh?" She raised an eyebrow, standing up fully and relaxing her arms.

The man faltered at the full height of the dragon—she was taller than some aliens, but not quite as tall as Groot—but smiled again, moving closer to her"It looks awful heavy. How about you accompany me to the pawn shop—"

Pawn shop. Unless that involved selling something she and her friends stole, those two words meant someone was trying to steal her usekh. Naturally, that was to be avoided, for her sake, Rocket and Groot's sake, and the sake of the surrounding community.

The longer the usekh remained around Crys's neck, the longer she remained in control of her wild side.

She grabbed the man's arm and tossed him to the ground. He grunted in surprise. She kicked him so he rolled away from her. "So sorry," She sniffed, tossing her head up. "But my usekh is _not_ for sale. It's nothing personal; I just don't make deals that concern mine and others' safety." She strolled away to the fountain in the center of the city, just overhearing Rocket exclaim happily, "Groot! Crys! We're gonna be rich!"

"All right, boys, what've we got?" She asked, placing her hands on her hips.

"We just got a hot one! 'Peter Quill,' wanted by Yondu Udonta for 40,000 units!"

Crys whistled in amazement. "This Yondu must want this guy really badly."

Rocket glanced to the side and sighed, shaking his head. Crys looked to see Groot leaning over the fountain, drinking from it. "Groot…how many times do I gotta tell you: don't drink from the fountain!" Rocket yelled, smacking the Flora Colossus in the leg with his hologramic tablet, then checked it to see that it wasn't broken.

"Rocket, don't yell at Groot." Crys said sternly. She turned to Groot, who was smiling somewhat smugly. "Groot, don't drink the fountain water. You don't know what's in or has been in it."

Over the past few years of being with the unlikely duo, the dragon had become more than just their friend; she became something like a sisterly-figure. She and Rocket tended to butt heads like rivaling siblings, while Groot loved her like an older sibling looking to a younger one. Rocket often joked that the bigger alien liked Crys more than like a sibling. The only responses he would get were confused expressions from Crys, and either a glare or eye roll from Groot.

"All right, break's over." Rocket said, closing his tablet and putting it in his pocket. "This Quill guy's the chump with the red suit and cocky look. Let's get 'im. Groot, you got the sack, Crys, back me up. I got the fun part." He winked, cocking his gun.

* * *

><p><strong>AN Sorry for the late update. I haven't had much inspiration for this fanfic. But I had a big surge of inspiration for this one.**

**Hopefully I made it realistic for Crys joining Rocket and Groot. I figured Groot would definitely be for it (he's such a friendly and sweet guy :3) but Rocket's a harder nut to crack.**

**Sorry for the big jump cut. I didn't have any ideas for any adventures the trio would have between then and the movie. But I kinda made up for it by describing how Crys grew in wisdom and maturity. It's kinda parallel to a kid learning how the world works, though they probably wouldn't be thrust into it immediately until adulthood.**

**I feel kinda bad that my only inspiration for this fanfic was the movie starting. I've been writing a lot of fanfics where my characters are thrust into the canon movie, and I'm worried that a lot of people are tired of this. That's why A) I try not to jump immediately into the movie; B) I add the character's own moments, since they can't be in the whole movie the whole time; and C) I have some fiction writing before and after the movie. There was definitely some in the beginning for this. Maybe not so much after the movie, but definitely before.**

**Sorry if I don't make much sense, it's late, and I think I'm getting a bit sleepy. Hopefully the main chapter's fine.**


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